Japan's two shipping giants, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), have agreed to pay £54 million (approximately 510 million RMB) to settle a long-running collective lawsuit in the UK concerning the "car carrier cartel," bringing an end to this 25-year dispute involving 17 million vehicles.

The "car carrier cartel" refers to a monopoly alliance composed of several car shipping companies, primarily aimed at controlling the market through collusion.

The proposed settlement was announced in London on December 11th and is set to be reviewed by the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in mid-January 2026. If approved, along with previous settlement agreements reached with Japan's Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line), Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics/Eukor Car Carriers (WWL/Eukor), and Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV), the total compensation amount will reach £92.75 million (approximately 870 million RMB).

Initiated five years ago by consumer rights advocate Mark McLaren, this lawsuit targets pricing monopoly agreements (i.e., cartel alliances) between 2006 and 2015 that affected the import of 17 million new cars and vans from brands like Ford, Toyota, BMW, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Volkswagen into the UK.

The European Union previously ruled that several car shipping giants engaged in collusion behavior over many years concerning pricing, capacity, and customer allocation, with the violations dating back to the late 1990s. This ruling served as the basis for McLaren's lawsuit.

The recently disclosed settlement agreement follows a nine-week trial earlier this year involving Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. McLaren stated that this outcome underscores the importance of the "opt-out mechanism" recently implemented in the UK, allowing consumers and businesses to recover losses that might have been challenging to claim individually.

These shipping companies have been under global regulatory scrutiny for over a decade, and this collective lawsuit in the UK has ultimately led to a commercial resolution. If the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal approves the settlement agreement on January 16, 2026, compensation will begin to be distributed to millions of UK vehicle purchasers and lessees by the end of 2026, marking the closure of one of the longest-running antitrust scandals in the shipping industry's history.