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#Post#: 124970--------------------------------------------------
Euro Car Parks and others under investigation by the CMA for
petrol stations and appeals handling
DIR By: jfollows
Date: July 17, 2026, 4:13 am
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HTML https://www.gov.uk/government/news/parking-charges-cma-takes-action-to-drive-improvements-for-motorists<br
/>dated 16 July 2026
Press release
Parking charges: CMA takes action to drive improvements for
motorists
Package of action launched to help deliver fairer private
parking for UK drivers.
From:
Competition and Markets Authority
Published:
16 July 2026
Letters issued to private parking operators over concerns about
appeal process and extra charges
Recommendations to government on how to raise standards
Investigation launched into Euro Car Parks over whether its
practices and appeals processes break consumer protection law
Tips published to help drivers avoid common pitfalls and know
their rights
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today announced
a package of actions to improve the experience of UK motorists
dealing with private parking operators and help ensure they are
treated fairly when challenging parking charges.
Research suggests private parking operators issued around 14.4
million parking tickets in the year 2024/25 at places such as
gyms, supermarkets, restaurants, and retail parks. This is more
than double the number issued just 6 years ago.
The CMA is aware of complaints from motorists, who often feel
they have been unfairly issued with a parking ticket. Complaints
highlighted include unclear signage, broken ticket machines, and
faulty apps. Based on its own analysis, the CMA has particular
concerns about potentially unfair practices of some operators -
including the way they handle appeals and attempt to recover
additional fees on top of the parking charge. As a result, the
CMA is taking steps to investigate concerns and improve outcomes
for motorists. This includes:
opening an investigation into Euro Car Parks to examine whether
its practices at petrol stations and its handling of appeals may
breach consumer protection law. The investigation will consider
whether it’s fair for some drivers to receive parking charges
while queuing for, or using, petrol pumps and other forecourt
services, such as car washes. It will also examine aspects of
the company’s wider appeals processes – relating to both petrol
stations and car parks. The CMA is at the beginning of its
investigation, and it has reached no conclusions about whether
Euro Car Parks has broken the law
writing to other private parking operators outlining concerns
about the appeal process for drivers and potentially unfair
additional charges applied when seeking to recover unpaid
parking charges
calling on the wider sector to take action to ensure their
practices are consistent with consumer law and writing to trade
associations setting out steps that can be taken now to improve
appeals handling and communications with motorists
Making recommendations to government on the new Code of
Practice, that it has consulted on. This includes
recommendations that parking firms should be required to make
drivers aware of their rights, improve their appeals processes
to make them fair and consistent and looking at the rules around
consideration periods
Emma Cochrane, Executive Director of Consumer Protection at the
CMA, said:
Being issued with a parking charge can be a stressful
experience. Costs are high and often unexpected which is
difficult when people are budgeting carefully.
Parking companies must treat motorists fairly at all stages –
and a clear and consistent appeals process must be at the heart
of this.
We’re setting out a package of actions and recommendations to
help drivers and we’ve launched an investigation into the
practices of Euro Car Parks.
It’s time for all private parking operators to comply with
consumer law or risk action from the CMA.
A new CMA video and tips will help motorists navigate the
private parking system and avoid being caught out with
unnecessary costs:
Private parking charges - how to avoid getting caught out
(video)
Not all car parks work the same. Car parks have different rules,
and it is important to check the rules that apply (set out on
signs in the car park) every time you park so you don’t get
caught out. For example, car parks for the same supermarket
chain can have different rules in different locations.
Don’t assume free parking is automatic, even if you are a
customer. Some places such as supermarkets, gyms and restaurants
require drivers to register their vehicle details or scan a
receipt to show they are a customer to get free parking.
Keep evidence if something goes wrong. If payment machines are
not working, your car breaks down or another issue arises, take
photos and keep receipts, payment confirmations and other
records in case you need to prove what happened – or need to
appeal.
If you get a parking charge, don’t ignore it. If you believe the
charge has been issued incorrectly, act quickly and appeal to
the parking operator within 14 days, to make sure you remain
eligible for the Early Payment Discount (‘EPD’). If you are not
appealing the charge, pay within the 14 days to benefit from the
EPD.
Know your rights if you get a parking charge notice. You always
have the right to appeal. The charge should be cancelled if you
have evidence that shows you should be exempt – for example,
because of an emergency outside of your control. The charge
should be reduced to £20 in some circumstances – for example,
where you paid the fee, but mistyped your registration number.
These are outlined in the Appeals Charter in the existing
industry Code of Practice.
Notes to editors
Euro Car Parks was previously issued with an administrative
penalty for non-compliance with a CMA Information Notice. Euro
Car Parks has appealed the CMA’s decision to issue the penalty,
and the appeal is on-going. That penalty relates solely to Euro
Car Parks’ initial failure to respond to the CMA’s Information
Notice. It does not concern any alleged infringement of consumer
protection law.
Under the new consumer regime, if a company infringes consumer
protection law, the CMA can fine them up to 10% of their global
turnover (or £300,000 where this is higher than 10%).
For media enquiries, contact the CMA press office.
Email
press@cma.gov.uk
Telephone numbers
Phone: 020 3738 6460
Out of hours: 020 3738 6878
Opening hours
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. On bank holidays, use our out
of hours number.
#Post#: 124974--------------------------------------------------
Re: UKPC and others under investigation by the CMA for petrol
stations and appeals handling
DIR By: jfollows
Date: July 17, 2026, 4:52 am
---------------------------------------------------------
That's some 40,000 tickets every day of the year, and it's clear
to those of us who interact on the Private Parking section of
the forum that Euro Car Parks and many other operators treat
the appeals process with contempt, by rejecting perfectly valid
appeals and forcing people into a sham "independent" second
stage appeals process followed by bullying tactics from a bulk
litigator initiating court proceedings, all of which means that
many of their invoices get paid by people who don't want to or
can't engage with the process or are scared by threating
language and red ink.
Whether or not anything comes of this is a different matter, of
course.
#Post#: 124975--------------------------------------------------
Re: UKPC and others under investigation by the CMA for petrol
stations and appeals handling
DIR By: DWMB2
Date: July 17, 2026, 4:59 am
---------------------------------------------------------
A strong contender for "understatement of the year":
--- Quote ---
> operators’ internal appeals processes can lead to inconsistent
and suboptimal outcomes for consumers
--- End Quote ---
#Post#: 125003--------------------------------------------------
Re: Euro Car Parks and others under investigation by the CMA for
petrol stations and appeals handling
DIR By: ZigZagZog
Date: July 17, 2026, 7:10 am
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The mailonline weighs in -
HTML https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15982053/Private-parking-firms-apparently-flouting-law.html
#Post#: 125013--------------------------------------------------
Re: Euro Car Parks and others under investigation by the CMA for
petrol stations and appeals handling
DIR By: roythebus
Date: July 17, 2026, 8:31 am
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"The charge should be reduced to £20 in some circumstances – for
example, where you paid the fee, but mistyped your registration
number". The charge should be dropped in such cases. There are
those of us out there who have big fingers, may have arthritis
in fingers, or who simply make listakes. Or mistakes! I've also
seen a number of parking ticket machines where the keyboard is
so worn that the lettering is illegible.
#Post#: 125023--------------------------------------------------
Re: Euro Car Parks and others under investigation by the CMA for
petrol stations and appeals handling
DIR By: jfollows
Date: July 17, 2026, 9:22 am
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Yes, the argument can be that there is some "cost" to the
parking companies in issuing these tickets, so £20 is
compensation for this, but if 40,000 tickets are issued daily
and 25% of them are paid that's £1m/day collectively, so the odd
£20 here and there is a drop in the ocean.
#Post#: 125057--------------------------------------------------
Open letter from CMA to all private parking operators.
DIR By: InterCity125
Date: July 18, 2026, 3:03 am
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HTML https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a5784276d6d5c7e2845ca02/open_letter.pdf
This is explosive.
CMA are directly challenging the additional costs which parking
operator's are adding to PCNs.
This also blows the 'time on site' / ANPR arguments away - CMA
are saying that the consideration period is not part of the
drivers period of parking.
Worth a read as there is a ton of stuff we can use in appeals.
This could also have a massive impact on POPLA and IAS who
consistently use misleading wording / misleading legal
presentation in their appeal responses.
#Post#: 125061--------------------------------------------------
Re: Open letter from CMA to all private parking operators.
DIR By: jfollows
Date: July 18, 2026, 4:39 am
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Posted yesterday at
HTML https://www.ftla.uk/news-press-articles/ukpc-and-others-under-investigation-by-the-cma-for-petrol-stations-and-appeals-h/
The title has been corrected to Euro Car Parks, but the link is
showing my initial error.
Probably best to keep discussion in one place.
#Post#: 125062--------------------------------------------------
Re: Euro Car Parks and others under investigation by the CMA for
petrol stations and appeals handling
DIR By: InterCity125
Date: July 18, 2026, 4:58 am
---------------------------------------------------------
This is far wider than Euro Car Parks and petrol stations.
You really have to read the document through several times to
fully understand the ramifications.
We have several cases (going to Court) at the moment where the
Claimant is totally relying on an ANPR entry / exit to calculate
the period of parking - those claims are now dead ducks.
#Post#: 125063--------------------------------------------------
Re: Euro Car Parks and others under investigation by the CMA for
petrol stations and appeals handling
DIR By: DWMB2
Date: July 18, 2026, 5:18 am
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--- Quote ---
> those claims are now dead ducks.
--- End Quote ---
I think it's probably too early to speak that definitively off
the back of an initial letter to operators from the CMA - AIUI
courts are not bound by the opinions of the CMA.
It will however be very interesting to see how it plays out.
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