Answer given by Ms Vestager on behalf of the European Commission

The Commission understands that it is not uncommon for car manufacturers to request their direct customers — authorised dealers — to pre-register vehicles before selling them. Generally, there may be many reasons for this practice, and the Commission has no concrete indication that it may breach Article 101 or 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

If, however, a car manufacturer were to make it a condition of sale that all end consumers had to register their vehicle in the Member State where the selling dealer was established, this could, in some circumstances, lead to anticompetitive effects, notably by deterring cross-border sales. This in turn might imply that the car manufacturer’s agreement with its dealers were caught by Article 101 TFEU.