This is a scourge that affects a large number of used cars on the market: fake odometers, hidden defect which leads buyers to believe that the car they wish to purchase has driven fewer kilometers than it actually does. CarVertical in 2023 conducted a study with hard numbers … The second-hand market would matter 15.21% of vehicles with fake meters, with an average difference of 46,933 km…An illegal manipulation that would allow fraudulent sellers to show an average selling price of 25% higher! A phenomenon that will soon be able to be regulated in Europe thanks to our Belgian neighbors…

Car-Pass, Belgium’s anti-fraud system…

From January 1 to June 30, 2024, the Kingdom presides over the European Union.. On January 24, the Belgian Secretary of State for the Protection of Consumer Rights, Alexia Bertrand, confirmed to the European Parliament that the fight against meter counterfeiting is the main priority of this presidency. In all EU member states, garages, technical inspections, leasing companies and often government bodies already record vehicle meter readings. This is the most effective way to fight fraud with fake meters. But in Belgium, and this is a unique case at the moment, this data is collected and compiled by the Car-Pass association, who at the time of sale of the vehicle certifies that its odometer was not tampered with. The Belgian Presidency recommends exchange of this data between member states to ensure traceability when a used vehicle is exported to another Member State.

…which could be extended to all EU member states

This is the key question for Michel Pillman, managing director of Car-Pass: “ More than 60 million used cars are sold in the EU every year and every year European consumers are overpaid by billions of euros due to mileage fraud. I am therefore very pleased that Belgium is putting this issue back on the EU agenda. We can share our experience in this field with other countries.” Indeed, Belgium already sets a good example in this regard. In 2023, Car-Pass provided 371,388 meter readings for a total of 32,098 vehicles to our partner countries of the Netherlands, Slovakia and Latvia. Therefore, it will be difficult for fraudsters to falsify the odometer of a vehicle exported to these countries. without detection. But Michel Pilman is well aware that full shared access between all countries of the Union takes time. ” That’s why I am in favor of the rapid conclusion of bilateral agreements with Germany and France, among other things, as we did with the Netherlands at that time. Thanks to this, fraud with vehicles imported from the Netherlands has been reduced by 90% in a few years.”

A very positive observation which, if this measure were to become more widespread in the EU and especially in France, would put an end to the fraud that is still very common in the used car market.

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