IAAF warns against vehicle manufacturer monopoly

With the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launching its consultation on the draft guidance to accompany the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Order (MV-BEO), previously the MV-BER, the IAAF has warned that new legislation is required to prevent vehicle manufacturers controlling all aspects of the aftermarket.

Existing legislation supports independent operators in providing competitive service offers. This legislation, including the MV-BER, provides the basis for workshops to access the same tools, equipment, technical training and replacement parts to provide competing service offers. This is complemented by the vehicle type approval Regulations, which include detailed ‘repair and maintenance’ (RMI) requirements.

However, with vehicles becoming ever-more sophisticated, both the MV-BEO and the type approval regulations require secondary legislation to describe these technical requirements in detail.

Secondary legislation is being revised in Europe to ensure that vehicle manufacturers do not use the systems within modern vehicles to impose a monopoly to control all aspects of the diagnosis, service and repair, and the IAAF says this must also be done in Great Britain to avoid regulatory divergence with the EU and Northern Ireland.

Mark Field, IAAF chief executive said: “A vehicle is now an ‘IT system on wheels’, with the vehicle manufacturer as ‘system administrator’ with the corresponding ability to control all aspects of access, functions and data to all their competitors. Without robust and detailed legislation to define the technical requirements, it will simply allow the vehicle manufacturers to dominate and control the market, including the significant distortion of the abilities of competing vehicle-related service and mobility service providers.”

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