A legal action filed in the UK against five major shipping companies hopes to win back small "overpayments" for new car buyers.

The group legal action to the Competition Appeal Tribunal follows the European Commission ruling that shipping companies MOL, K Line, NYK, WWL/EUKOR and CSAV had violated EU competition law. 

The European Commission imposed fines of more than 395 million euros after deciding the shippers had coordinated rates, allocated tenders, coordinated reductions of capacity in the market and exchanged commercially sensitive information to maintain or increase the price of intercontinental shipping of new vehicles.

The UK action against the five companies is being brought under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by class representative and consumer rights champion Mark McLaren, who previously worked at Which? The Consumers' Association and currently sits on the Consumer Panel of the Legal Services Board.