ACM in action: car prizes include additional costs
Have you noticed that since 1 November 2016 car prices seem to have risen by a few thousand euro? It’s thanks to an enforcement action by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) focusing on the automobile sector. The ACM wants all ads for new cars to show the price you will actually pay for them.
Until recently, it was common practice in the car industry to advertise a basic price; however, this price failed to include costs that a consumer must pay just to drive the car home from the dealer. As a rule these costs include preparation costs, a recycling contribution and costs of registration. So a car with an advertised basic price of € 12,000 could easily cost you (even in the cheapest version) more than € 13,000. Standard operating procedure for car dealers, but a bit hard for buyers to accept.
After having forced the travel branch to advertise only transparent final prices, now the ACM has turned to the car sellers. The ACM advises them to post the price as shown in the above example. Which means: a basic price that includes any additional costs, and (optionally) stating the total amount of extra costs. Which also means: the end of disclaimers in car ads, stating the extra costs in the fine print.
But there is a catch for the ACM here. According to a recent ruling of the CJEU, the European directive on the basis of which the total final price must be stated was not properly implemented in Dutch legislation: this obligation is not clearly stated in the Dutch act, and may not even apply at all. There may be a few bones to be picked if the ACM decides to impose a fine.
Bram Duivenvoorde