The UK’s top court has refused to hear an appeal by car carriers trying to halt a £143m ($177m) legal battle over claims that they operated a cartel bringing vehicles into the country.
The decision by three judges, following appeals by 10 companies including Mitsui OSK Lines, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean and K Line, will allow the case to go ahead in early 2025.
The case, brought by consumer advocate Mark McLaren, is seeking compensation for British motorists who bought new cars over nine years from October 2006. He claims they were overcharged because of delivery price-fixing between the carriers.
The shipping companies had tried but failed to get the class action case kicked out because of an error by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which is hearing the case, about how the pricing of car transport was calculated.
The latest attempt to stop the case failed because lawyers for the companies failed to provide “an arguable point of law or a point of law of general public importance”, according to the Supreme Court website.
The European Commission censured MOL, K Line, NYK Line, Compania Sud Americana de Vapores, and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and its sister company Eukor in 2018 for breaking European Union competition law.
Imposing a total fine of €395m ($422m) on four of the five, the EC found the carriers had fixed prices, allocated business between themselves and exchanged commercially sensitive information. MOL avoided a fine after it revealed the existence of the cartel.
Car carrier owners have separately faced legal claims worldwide from car makers claiming they were overcharged, including Daimler, Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover.
