Ten major car manufacturers and two trade bodies have been fined a total of £461m for colluding over the amount of cars that can be recycled.

Manufacturers BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot Citroën, Renault, Toyota, Vauxhall and Volkswagen, along with trade bodies the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) and its European equivalent the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), have been served with fines of £77.7m by the UK Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA), and the equivalent of £382.7m by the European Commission.

According to the CMA judgement, the companies breached competition law by agreeing not to advertise if their vehicles went above the minimum recyclability requirement of 85% (even if the actual percentage was higher). Manufacturers are legally required to include details on recyclability in their advertising materials.

With the exception of Renault, the manufacturers also agreed not to share information with their customers about the percentage of recycled material used in their vehicles. Mercedes-Benz was also involved but reported the conduct to the CMA and so was exempted from a fine.

Most manufacturers took part in the practice from May 2002 to September 2017, with Jaguar Land Rover joining in September 2008. Between April 2004 and May 2018, eight manufacturers also agreed not to pay companies to handle the recycling of their customers’ end-of-life vehicles, preventing recycling companies from negotiating a price with manufacturers.

Other manufacturers and the SMMT and ACEA trade bodies later joined in the illegal agreement.

In announcing its decision, the CMA stated that the fines included a 20% settlement discount to reflect that those involved admitted their role in the infringement and agreed to cooperate with the investigation.