Class action vehicle lawsuit settles at £55m less than original value
A class action lawsuit representing millions of UK motorists and businesses affected by inflated shipping fees has settled for £57m less than its original £150m target.
The claim, brought by class action representative and former Which? campaigns specialist Mark McLaren, alleged that from October 2006 to September 2012, leading European shipping companies had breached competition law by working in a cartel, exchanging commercially sensitive information, coordinating pricing, and dividing customers among themselves to avoid competing with each other.
The cartel allegedly affected shipments of 17 million new cars and vans on their way to the UK from carmarkers including Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Nissan.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) approved a settlement of £55.87m in compensation for the claimants on Thursday. However, when McLaren originally launched the lawsuit six years ago it was valued at £150m.
Individual payouts for consumers and businesses will start at £25 per vehicle, while those with more than one affected vehicle are set to receive an extra £5 for each up to six vehicles and then an extra £2.50 if claiming for over six, with compensation due to be paid in the coming months.
“This settlement has been secured on behalf of consumers and businesses who were overcharged for new vehicles, because of hidden agreements between companies they’d never heard, which secretly cost them money. They now deserve to get that money back,” McLaren said.
Scott + Scott, the law firm representing McLaren in the proceedings, said in a statement the settlement “marks the end of six years of legal action against a group of international shipping corporations led by consumer champion Mark McLaren.”
“For almost 10 years, the shipping giants overcharged for transporting new vehicles into the UK. This ended up hiking the prices for what millions paid for their vehicles,” the firm said.
Record settlement , lower payout
This comes after the CAT approved a £260m settlement on 16 September in a class action against Google’s parent company, Alphabet, the largest payout the court has ever approved, following an agreement the week before.
However, the agreed payout was significantly lower than the £1.04bn the claim was estimated to be worth when it was filed in September 2024.