The BVRLA has submitted feedback to the European Commission on its review of the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption regulations.
The regulations help to preserve vehicle owners' freedom of choice in getting their vehicles repaired, service and maintained. The regulations are key for members as they protect leasing and rental companies’ status as the ‘end user' – which means customer details can be kept confidential.
The current exemption expires in 2023 and the European Commission is carrying out an evaluation to check whether the exemption is still effective, efficient, and consistent with other EU and national rules.
The BVRLA believes that the exemption has been most beneficial for the consumer and recommends that the regulation should be maintained but modernised because of technological advances.
Without the exemption, there is a real risk that:
- Consumer choice could be limited, and the market become anti-competitive if members lost the ‘end-user’ status afforded them by the regulation, as their ability to negotiate competitive prices for consumers would be removed.
- Consumers could experience higher repair costs because main dealers charge significantly higher labour rates than their counterparts in the independent garage network.
With technology advancing at such a rapid pace, unrestricted access to vehicle data is a necessity which could prove difficult in the absence of the exemption.
