A group lawsuit under the Consumer Rights Act of 2015 will be taken on behalf of buyers and businesses who bought a new car between October 2006 and September 2015. Those affected could collectively be owed £150 million due to being overcharged on shipping.

That amounts to around £60 per new car bought or leased. Those affected may include buyers of Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Peugeot, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, Citroen and Renault cars and commercial vehicles over that period.

So, who is responsible, and what happened? Reportedly, it was a collaborative effort between a number of companies: MOL, “K” Line, NYK, WWL/EUKOR and CSAV. The firms allegedly coordinated manipulation of shipping rates, including reducing capacity and swapping commercially sensitive information.

The European Commission has already ruled the above companies broke EU competition law, imposing fines of more than £340 million. There have also been investigations by other regulators around the world, including Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the USA, Peru, Brazil, South Africa and Chile. Overall, not including the EU’s take, fines have exceeded £590 million.