Press Release: Commission adopts evaluation report on motor vehicle distribution and servicing under Regulation 1475/95

The European Commission has adopted an evaluation report on Regulation 1475/95 on motor vehicle distribution and servicing agreements which lays down specific EU competition rules for this particular sector. The report is a factual analysis of the current regime, a 'block exemption' from the normal rules which vehicle manufacturers can use as a binding framework for their distribution systems - and as such does not contain any proposals for the future. It analyses in particular whether or not the assumptions on which the Regulation is based are still valid and whether the objectives that it pursues have been met. The report comes to the conclusion that the block exemption has not achieved part of the aims stated by the Commission in 1995 when it renewed its permission to use selective distribution networks for the sale of motor cars. Consumers in particular do not seem to derive from this distribution system the fair share of the benefits of the creation of a European single market in 1993.

Before the end of the year 2001, the Commission intends to publish proposals for the new motor vehicle distribution and servicing regime that will be applicable after Regulation 1475/95 expires on 30.9.02. The proposals will take into account comments received from interested parties and views aired at the hearing. The new framework will be decided by the Commission in the first half of the year 2002 at the latest.

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