approved used car scandal

Our Approach

Our Approach

We have been campaigning on this matter for over 7 years, and have led the complaint investigation with the ASA which has resulted in the publication of the ruling.

We have also been requested on numerous occasions by phone and e-mail to the Transport Select Committee to take action and table this subject. Ms Louise Ellman MP that was the chair of the select committee (until the latest general election) and her staff refused to communicate with us. During the dissolved government while the election was taking place Ms Ellman informed us by e-mail that the matter would be dealt with under the newly elected committee after government was reformed, however we started contacting her about this in January 2017?!.  Ms Ellman even went on record to the Daily mail in Feb 2017 stating "I will ask the committee to consider the possibility of an inquiry.’

We did contact staff at the select committee after the committee was reformed but were refused any action or tabling the subject to the committee. It seems the committee are very keen on asking questions and holding others to account but are absolutely unwilling to answer questions or for its own lack of action.

Parliament at great expense to the the tax payer got the Consumer Protection from Unfair trading regulations onto the statue book, but has done next to nothing to encourage or force local trading standards to bring prosecutions under the CPUR"S, despite MP's from all major parties stating this is an abuse of those regulations and of consumers. Please see the comments and when they were made, and it becomes clear that MP's and each incumbent government cares little for consumers in this matter, and appear not to want to do anything to harm motor manufacturers profits.

In the VW emissions scandal the EU has been unable to fine VW and so is now looking to Member States to bring action and has recently said it plans to take legal action against the UK and Germany for not doing enough. The same could happen in this second hand car sales scandal and the CPUR's are adopted from the equivalent European directive (Directive 2005/29/EC), which the UK has failed to enforce.

 

Our Story

Our Story

Now that the Advertising standards Authority has upheld our complaint and issued this formal ruling of its investigation which was running for over 18 month, it now shows that a leading Authority has confirmed this is a breach of the Adverting standards codes and the consumer protection from Unfair trading regulations.

We would now expect The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP the other half of the Advertising standards Authority) that is responsible for enforcing the rulings and in this case widening the ruling out from just Fiat Chrysler to the entire Motor Manufacturers industry and dealers, as all motor manufactures are committing this breach.

Should this not be done the ASA and CAP will be fully aware this industry mis-advertising is continuing on an industrial scale, as it is fully aware that all manufacturers sell cars out on lease to hire care company's on lease and to fleet companies and then buy them back and sell them in the same way through their websites and approved dealers with out advertising them as such or informing consumers.

The ASA states on its website "Advertisements that break the Codes can be withdrawn swiftly without needing to resort to legal action", however it has taken them 18month to come to its conclusion on this case, which I don't think can be considered swift and during that time approximately 1.5 million more cars have been falsely advertised and mis-sold, the ASA can't therefore impartially be seen an effective alternative to legal action such as an injunction.

Other government agencies were involved in this investigation including Department for Business, Energy
& Industrial Strategy and The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland.

Our goal is to stop this illegal practice continuing and resulting in consumers being duped into buying ex-rental and ex-lease cars illegally while unfairly inflating the number of sales of these ex-hire and ex-lease cars and inflating the agreed purchase price and artificially and illegally boosting the manufactures and dealers ​profits.
We seek to enable effected consumers to obtain justice where they have been mis-sold in this way and obtaining compensation for having been mis-sold these vehicles. We will also continue to force  the ASA, trading standards and Parliament to stop this practice from continuing in the future so that people do not have to make claims of this sort after the event, by stopping the mis-advertising  and selling from continuing.

The successive governments since the regulations were introduced in 2008 have done nothing effectively to protect consumers in this situation by using the powers it introduced through the agencies empowered to do so.

I'm sure when questioned the current government and transport ministers and secretary .

The government are either idle in this situation or complicit, in that they do not want to do anything to damage the Motor Manufacturing industry or effect their profits. Even it seem if these are being generated illegally at the expense of its citizens, tax paying public and voting public. It must therefore be asked if it is a proportionate response for the government to allow wide spread criminal activity by the motor manufactures a proportionate response, in order not to upset the motor manufacturers or put at risk jobs.

I'm sure the government would rather argue they are idle rather than complicit, however I don't think this really help there cause.

No doubt Brexit has some part to play in the government not getting involved in this situation, as it fears large company's might need little encouragement to re-locate. However their situation has existed under numerous governments long before brexit was voted upon.

The CPR"S had to be implemented in the UK as a result of a European directive being pasted down, and yet the government has paid lip service to this all along as it has never ensured even a minimum level of enforcement through it agencies or through trading standards, and has therefore failed in it duties in this regard since they were introduced.

approved car scandal

Dodgy car salesman

I'm expecting the trades descriptions wallies to pop round today

approved car scandal

Hire Car outlet

Outlet where cars are rented out before being taken back off of lease to be sold by car manufacturers on their used car websites.

approved used car sales scandal

Car Supermarkets

Many of these cars are likely to have been Ex-hire or ex-lease cars

Next Steps...

To join the group action please complete the contact form on this web-site and you case will be assessed to decided if you were mis-sold a secondhand ex-hire or ex-fleet car. You will then be contacted by a law firm to progress your claim.