European Parliament calls Commission to tackle odometer manipulation
The European Parliament approved with a vast majority a set of recommendations to the European Commission to crack down on odometer tampering of used vehicles. It pleads for technical requirements for vehicles to prevent odometers from being easily manipulated, but it also emphasises that all Member States should have national mileage registers and engage in cross-border exchange of data from those registers.
Odometer fraud is widespread across the European Union. Citizens EU-wide incur a loss of euro 8.9 billion per year. Besides inflated costs for the consumer, odometer tampering has adverse consequence on road safety, the environment and substantially distorts the functioning of the used car market in the EU. The Parliament calls for a range of measures to tackle odometer manipulation both for new vehicles put on the market and for those already on the road. The report highlights both technical measures to prevent odometer fraud and reporting requirements on odometer readings for Member States. Car-Pass together with 6 organisations appeals to the Commission to act swiftly to implement the solutions set out in the report. It is indeed a great opportunity for Europe to prove its added value in day to day life of its citizens.
