The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) wants car companies to comply with the rules regarding the pricing of used cars. The regulator has established that car companies often still state the price incorrectly or incompletely, especially when it comes to including VAT in the price. From now on, ACM will attach consequences to this.
The omission of VAT on second-hand sites has long been an annoyance for both car buyers and car sellers. Last year, it led to the manifesto ‘Exclude VAT from it’. That is why ACM decided to take action on this. The regulator demands that the price of the car in question must include VAT and other unavoidable costs, that any subsidies for, for example, electric cars must not be included in the sales price and that the price including all mandatory costs must be the first price that the consumer see in the ad.
In practice, this is not always the case. This is because ACM received ‘various signals’ from consumers about the incorrect statement of second-hand prices. “We still see too often that this is not correct,” says Edwin van Houten, director of Consumers at ACM. The regulator has therefore recently pointed out the rules to dealers, platforms and other involved parties and sat down with them. “The rules are simple and not new,” says Van Houten. “Companies that still make a mistake can expect a fine.” It is not clear how high the fine will be.
On the used car finder of AutoWeek you can check whether you want to see the prices including or excluding VAT. It is also stated for each occasion whether a price is inclusive or exclusive of VAT. Incidentally, VAT only applies to cars if the car in question is either new or has always been driven for business with a refund of VAT. Once a car has been sold to a private individual, it will forever remain a margin car on which no VAT is paid. The issue with ‘ex-VAT prices’ therefore mainly arises with young used cars that have been driven for business.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl