Vehicle salvage merger reduces choice, CMA warns

Copart’s completed purchase of Hills Motors could lead to higher prices and reduced choice of salvage services, investigation finds

Vehicle salvage merger reduces choice, CMA warns
Image: Bigstock.

Copart’s completed purchase of Hills Motors will reduce the number of salvage services providers available to customers and could limit the vehicles available to suppliers of recycled vehicle parts, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has warned.

Phase one of the CMA investigation found that Copart and Hills Motors were among a few in the business with national contracts for salvage services and they competed for the same contracts.

The CMA therefore found that Copart and Hills Motors are close competitors, and the transaction could lead to a loss of competition in the supply of salvage services and salvage vehicles.

The CMA also considered the effect of the transaction on the supply of green parts.

Copart previously had no dismantling capability but was one of the largest suppliers of cars to dismantling businesses.

Since acquiring Hills Motors, Copart could decide to restrict the number of salvage vehicles with reusable parts available on its auction platform and instead have Hills Motors dismantle them.

The CMA warned that this could restrict rival dismantling businesses’ access to salvage vehicles and lead to higher prices and reduced choice for customers of salvage services and green parts.

Sorcha O’Carroll, senior director of mergers at the CMA, said: “It is important that salvage and green parts services remain competitive so that the many businesses in the UK that rely on them benefit from lower prices and higher quality services.

“Our investigation showed that Copart’s purchase of Hills Motors takes out an important player in the vehicle salvage services industry and that few competitors would be left in the market.

“The transaction could also make it more difficult for green parts suppliers to purchase the vehicles they need, which would reduce competition in that market.

“We will move to an in-depth investigation unless the companies can address our concerns.”

The CMA gave Copart five working days to submit proposals to address its competition concerns.

1 Comment

  1. #copart #utter. Think they from Emerica. Either way bunch of crooks.

    If CMA that bothered then price limit everything

    ALL starters & alternators, drive shaft, unbolted wing, back seats. Fixed max price of £50

    Anything over 50Kg max cost £100

    Either way copart are greedy crooks & scammers

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

Have your say!

0 1

Lost Password

Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.