Information requests are legal tools used by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to obtain documents and information for its investigations into suspected anti-competitive conduct. The CMA regularly makes such mandatory requests to ensure the findings from its investigations are robust and evidence based.
In March this year, the CMA launched an investigation into a number of vehicle manufacturers and trade associations over suspected breaches of competition law. Specifically, this relates to the use of recycled materials in cars, their recyclability, and the arrangements for recycling old or written-off vehicles.
The CMA believes that important aspects of the suspected conduct were agreed outside the UK and implemented in the UK. The CMA suspects that BMW AG, which is based in Germany, or other BMW Group companies based outside the UK, hold information which the CMA considers important to its investigation. The CMA therefore wrote to BMW Group formally requiring it to produce information, including from its parent company BMW AG.
Although BMW UK provided information, the wider BMW Group has failed to comply fully with the CMA's legal request, and has claimed that the CMA does not have jurisdiction. The CMA does not accept this contention and is therefore issuing fines for non-compliance with the information requests: both a fixed penalty of £30,000 and a daily penalty of £15,000. The daily penalty will continue to accumulate until BMW Group provides the requested information, or the CMA issues an infringement decision, or the case is closed.
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