Garage Support Newsletter 7 UK 2021

In the

Though little known outside the motor industry, the EU’s Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulations (MVBER) perform a critical role in supporting the health of the independent automotive aftermarket and giving drivers choice, including in the UK as the legislation carried over post-Brexit. At their heart are various protections that enable independent parts manufacturers to provide alternatives to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and for independent garages to compete with franchised dealerships. The current MVBER period expires in 2023 and while the European Commission is consulting the industry on what should replace it, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is yet to get going. But already, even though the current MVBER still stand, a lack of enforcement, combined with rapid technological progress in the automotive sector, is eroding the protection it provides.

Tricks of the trade There is a worrying increase of other anti-competitive practices, too. OEMs continue to withhold bulk Repair and Maintenance Information (RMI) from the independent sector, despite being legally obliged to do so since September last year. This impedes diagnostic tools manufacturers and automotive data publishers from creating products and solutions for new vehicles. And its knock-on effect is to restrict product choice to OEM branded parts alone. Independent garages are sometimes unable to update online service records, which are stored on OEMs’ private servers. This is clearly off-putting for car owners looking to keep a full history. Often, drivers are wrongly told that their warranties have been invalidated because a service wasn’t carried out by a franchised dealer, or because it used non-OEM brand parts. It’s also common for OEMs to strong-arm dealerships into only using their branded parts, despite MVBER guaranteeing choice. Sadly, most transgressions like this and the slow captive parts monopolies that have emerged in recent years have gone unpunished by European or national authorities. And the prospect of a legal battle between the UK’s army of SME independent businesses and the global automotive giants makes David and Goliath seem trivial.

Andy Hamilton, CEO, LKQ Euro Car Parts If you work in the independent aftermarket and have experience of the examples of anti-competitive behaviour mentioned above, then UKAFCAR wants to hear from you. And if your business wants to join this expanding coalition then the same applies. We hope that by presenting more and more compelling evidence of the abuse of MVBER to regulators today, we can safeguard it and improve it for tomorrow.

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