Legal Action
The Environment Agency has secured a proceeds of crime judgment for £313,382.45 against men from Northampton who ran an illegal waste tyre site. A pair of Northampton men are to pay for their role in an illegal tyre waste site in Daventry.
At Northampton crown court on Friday 28 March, a confiscation hearing concluded against Nimesh Patel, aged 52, of Jasper Walk, Thorplands Brook, and Andrew Eyre, aged 55, of Poppyfield Road, Wootton.
Earlier today, the Helsinki Court of Appeal issued a judgment in the securities market criminal case of Nokian Tyres plc. The case heard in the Court of Appeal was related to the events of 2015-2016.
In February 2025, tyre manufacturer Delun Rubber was administratively punished by the Dingyuan County Human Resources and Social Security Bureau for not paying social insurance for employees. The fine was about 155,000 yuan (about £16,600; €19,800).
Following the news that the recent class-action price-fixing case against tyre manufacturers has been dismissed, we took a closer look at the Judge’s ruling combining her legal opinion with analysis that we produced based on third-party European data around the time the US suits were brought. In short, we found that Judge’s opinion amounts to the belief that operating in parallel isn’t necessarily tyre price-fixing. And furthermore, our data shows that that broader tyre market prior landscapes somewhat contradict simplistic notions of prices always rising.
In the US, on 25 February 2025, US District Court Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division Chief Judge, Sara Lioi, dismissed the recent US tyre manufacturer price-fixing class-action that followed an EC investigation into similar claims relating to European tyre operations. The named defendants, in alphabetical order, were: Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear, Michelin, Pirelli and Nokian. All six had jointly filed a motion to dismiss the price-fixing case “for failure to state a claim”.
Hassan Akbar Rashid, 24, and George Peter Snowden, 28, were due to appear in Teesside Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday accused of “issuing MOT certificates without testing cars” in October 2023, according to Teesside Live. Rashid faces 19 charges and Snowden faces six charges.
Following the news of unannounced raids on Goodyear offices in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Eurojust has confirmed that it has assisted the authorities in France, Belgium and Luxembourg with a series of coordinated searches of premises and offices of “an international tyre manufacturer”. While Eurojust hasn’t yet confirmed the identity of the manufacturer at the centre of the investigation, the locations match those that Goodyear itself has said were subject to unannounced visits.
In an operation that French newspaper Le Monde describes as “both spectacular and unprecedented,” investigators from three European countries carried out a series of raids against Goodyear today. The publication writes that the prosecutor in Besançon, France confirms this action, which took place just two months shy of the tenth anniversary of a fatal motorway crash involving a Goodyear Marathon LHS II truck tyre.
Days after the European Commission announced that it is investigating a number of leading tyre manufacturers in relation to allegations of price-fixing, the same companies have become the subject of a similar class-action lawsuit in the USA. The class action relates to “…purchases of tyres within four years prior to the filing” – which clearly relates to a potentially enormous number of tyres. The case basically alleges that the named tyremakers colluded to raise and sustain higher tyre prices and that such action was at least partly facilitated via public communications. The named tyremakers have all already denied price fixing and stated their compliance with the law and their cooperation with investigations in relation the EC investigation.
The Italian Guardia di Finanza has discovered large-scale online tyre fraud. According to our sister publication Pneusnews.it, the investigation has led to the execution of five “personal precautionary measures” for VAT fraud in the Italian online tyre trade and the seizure of about 40 million euros by Turin European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Well-known tyre brands Michelin and Cooper have faced Chinese customs penalties since July, Tyrepress China has learned.
The cost-of-living crisis is pushing the European Commission into action. Having faced accusations of being on the backfoot since the pandemic, it is now increasing the number of dawn raids and antitrust investigations. The ultimate intention is to prevent consumers facing higher costs than necessary from businesses.
In July, Exhaust Tyres and Batteries (Worcester) Limited (otherwise known as the Bridgestone-owned ETB tyre retail operation) exceeded the amount of waste the company were legally allowed to deposit at Synergy Tyres Limited, Daventry in total depositing around 250,000 of waste tyres. As a result, ETB was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,463.
The Environment Agency, Calderdale Council, Bradford Council and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue report that they recently uncovered two sites operating illegally in Calderdale and Bradford. As a result, Shakil Ahmed (42), of Halifax, Jamie Craggs (34), of Bradford, and Levi Depass (35) Shipley, appeared at Bradford Crown Court on Wednesday 12 July after earlier pleading guilty.
The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. says it has eliminated “counterfeit versions of the company’s aluminum wheels in China”. Yokohama Rubber filed an administrative complaint and submitted information to the Administration for Market Regulation in Foshan, Guangdong Province, regarding five companies engaged in the distribution of counterfeit sports car aluminium wheels imitating Yokohama’s “ADVAN Racing” wheels. The distributors were selling the counterfeit wheels via internet shopping sites and retail shops outside of the company’s official distribution channels.
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Scott Donkin – stock.adobe.com
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Not long ago, Chinese customs imposed penalties on Michelin and Cooper (Photo: Renato Marques; Unsplash)
Environment Agency