Euro Car Parks fined £473k after claiming regulator emails were "scams"
Wed, 18 Feb 2026
Euro Car Parks has been forced to pay £473,000 after it failed to hand over information to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The fine was imposed by the CMA after Euro Car Parks ignored seven requests for information, reports The Guardian—including by registered post, email and even hand-delivered letter.
The CMA sends out “information notices” to companies when deciding whether to open an investigation, reports The Guardian.
Such information requests are “essential tools that help us understand the facts and get to the bottom of potential infringements of the law,” says the CMA’s Hayley Fletcher.
“It is a legal obligation to comply... they are not optional.”
Euro Car Parks says it blocked the emails because it thought they were a scam attempt. The CMA “did not consider this a reasonable excuse”.
The firm only responded, adds the CMA, after it raised the potential of a fine.
It is the first time the CMA has issued a penalty under new fining powers it was given in 2024. Euro Car Parks was fined due to the extra time and resources to obtain the information.
The £473k fine was 75% of the maximum possible fixed charge, reflecting the seriousness of the matter.
The CMA added that there was no consumer enforcement case open against Euro Car Parks and “no assumption should be made that it has infringed consumer law”.
Euro Car Parks sought a high court injunction to stop it being named, added the regulator, but the application was refused.
