Automakers in Europe are being probed for suspected anti-competitive conduct in relation to the recycling of old or written-off vehicles.

The CMA said the conduct relates to arrangements for recycling old or written-off vehicles, specifically cars and vans, which are known in the industry as ‘end-of-life vehicles’ or ELVs

Investigations have been opened by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulatory body and the European Commission, and there have been reports of several automotive companies and associations in several countries being raided.

The CMA said the conduct relates to arrangements for recycling old or written-off vehicles, specifically cars and vans, which are known in the industry as ‘end-of-life vehicles’ or ELVs.

These vehicles are classed as waste, generally due to age-related failure or accident, and must be disposed of in a sustainable way under regulations. Vehicle manufactures must offer their customers a free service for recycling ELVs; a service manufacturers often outsource to third parties.

Both the CMA and the European Commission have said they have concerns that antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices may have been broken; respectively the UK’s Competition Act 1998 and Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

But they also stressed that no assumptions should be made at this stage about whether competition law has been broken.

The CMA added that the names of the parties involved will only be published when a formal investigation is opened and it’s deemed that it won’t prejudice the work.