The car cartel was an agreement carried out illegally by most of the car manufacturers operating in Spain. This agreement established a common strategy for pricing cars sold in the country between February 2006 and August 2013.
In this illegal operation, 25 commercial brands were involved that shared information to manipulate the sale price of the vehicles and thereby generate an extra cost that translated into an improvement in profits. It is estimated that prices were paid up to 15% higher than their value.
Due to this situation, the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) implemented punitive measures such as the payment of a fine of 171 million. In addition, the Supreme Court is ratifying the sanctions of the brands that appealed.
This situation affected ten million people who are recovering between 2,000 and 9,000 euros with their claims. The Supreme Court, for its part, is working to speed up the recovery process of overpaid money as much as possible.
Since one of the plaintiffs received 5% of the money paid for her vehicle in September 2022, a large number of lawsuits have been launched that, despite claiming larger amounts, aspire to be compensated for the operation carried out by the different makes of car.
All that glitters is not gold and, despite the fact that the infringing brands have a sentence against them, the claims made to them must be well-founded and free of certain errors that can knock down the return of the money that has been paid. above the cost of the car.
It is estimated that up to ten million people will be able to claim compensation and that they should be careful how they do so. It must be taken into account that any person, individually or collectively, can initiate a claim in which they must provide documentation proving payment for the vehicle, amounts paid for repairs, the technical sheet and the contracts formed when buying it.
To avoid losing a favorable ruling on the claim, you must be careful to perform the following actions:
There are several platforms that have been launched to help people affected by the car cartel to file the corresponding claim. Many of the platforms are able to offer claimants the ability to make an estimate of the money they could get if they start the process.
The possibility of recovering the money is easier if it is done through a group claim.
Due to the number of favorable rulings for the claimants in recent months, new processes have been launched to obtain the corresponding compensation. The amount or percentage returned on each occasion is very different since it depends on the purchase price of the different vehicles and the interest that has been generated on the purchase price.
In these cases, the compensation is around between 5% and 15% of the price paid at the time of purchase. The result for the brands that formed the pact between 2006 and 2013 can amount to a disbursement of 2,000 million euros. And this if we take into account that only 10% of the people affected by the car cartel claimed.
To find out if your car is one of the vehicles affected by the agreement, you just have to access one of the many lists that you can find online. Just entering some information that can identify them: brand, model and date of purchase, will be enough to know if you can enter to claim compensation for the extra cost from the brand.
Since it is a claim addressed to the car brands and not to the dealers, it will not be necessary to know where the vehicle was purchased.
