If you bought a new car between 2006 and 2013, you probably overpaid — and the clock runs out this year

What the car cartel was

In 2015 Spain's competition authority (CNMC) fined manufacturers and distributors covering most of the car market for exchanging commercially sensitive information — prices, discounts, margins, after-sales conditions — between 2006 and 2013. The Supreme Court upheld the sanctions. The practical effect for you: whoever bought a new car in that window paid an artificially inflated price, and the law lets you claim that overcharge back. Court awards are running at 5–15% of the purchase price — on a €20,000 car, between €1,000 and €3,000. Private buyers, self-employed and companies (including fleets) can all claim. Every case is its own case: nobody can honestly guarantee an outcome, and we won't.

Why 2026 is the final year

The clock starts when each brand's sanction became final in court — not on a common date for the whole cartel. Spain's Supreme Court (Civil Chamber) fixed that criterion in its judgments 889/2025 of 5 June and 971/2025 of 17 June: the starting point is "the finality with respect to each defendant", one date per brand, in line with the EU Court of Justice ruling of 4 September 2025 (case C-21/24, Nissan Iberia). For most brands that meant deadlines already expired between April and June 2026. Four groups remain — their live countdown is in the table below, computed today in your browser. And one more scenario stays alive whatever the brand, BMW and all the rest included: if you (or a claims platform on your behalf) sent the manufacturer an out-of-court claim before your brand's deadline, prescription was interrupted and your case still stands. Find that proof of sending before spending a single euro — it is the whole case.

The move that saves cases: the burofax

The courts have not definitively settled whether the limitation period is five years (art. 74 of the Competition Act) or one (art. 1968.2 of the Civil Code). In the June 2025 judgments the Supreme Court applied five — and added that even under the one-year thesis the outcome would not change, because the burofaxes sent by the claimant had interrupted prescription. Translated into practice: a burofax costs a few euros, interrupts the clock under both theses, and is sent the day you open the case, not when the lawsuit is ready. If your brand is in its final days, that is the first step — before gathering a single document.

What you need — and what we do

The core evidence is the purchase invoice or contract. Lost it? A case can often be rebuilt: vehicle report from the DGT, the dealer's records, financing paperwork, even the technical card. What we do: check your deadline brand by brand, assemble the evidence file, estimate the claim value, and prepare the out-of-court claim. The court claim itself — where these cases are won — is always filed by a practising lawyer: we prepare your file so that step is fast, and we refer you with everything ready. Small fixed fee for the file work, told in advance; no percentage of your compensation.

Bought your car with financing, or sold it since?

Neither matters: the damage happened when you bought. Selling the car later doesn't erase the overcharge you paid, and financed purchases claim the same. What matters is the paperwork trail — which is exactly what we build. If your brand's window has closed and you never interrupted prescription, we'll tell you so honestly, in one sentence, for free.