The CMA is investigating Euro Car Parks over petrol station tickets and appeals

What the CMA is looking at

On 15^th July 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority opened a consumer protection case against Euro Car Parks, one of the UK's largest private parking operators, and announced it the next day. It covers two things:

• whether it is fair to charge drivers who are queuing for, or using, petrol pumps and other forecourt services such as car washes;
• whether Euro Car Parks' appeals processes, at petrol stations and car parks, comply with consumer law.

The case is at an early stage. The CMA plans to gather evidence, send formal information requests and analyse the answers before deciding whether the law has been broken, with the initial work expected to run until spring 2027. In its own words, it should not be assumed that Euro Car Parks has broken consumer protection law.

A warning to every operator

Alongside the case, the CMA wrote an open letter to private parking operators, sent through their trade associations. It raises concerns about how appeals are handled and about potentially unfair extra charges added when operators chase unpaid charges, and sets out steps to improve appeals and how operators talk to drivers.

It also wrote to the government, recommending changes to the new code of practice: that drivers be told their rights, that appeals be fair and consistent, and that the rules on consideration periods be reviewed. The code the government laid on 20^th October 2026 includes a guaranteed five minutes to decide whether to park. What the new code changes.

The separate £473,000 fine

This is not the first time the CMA and Euro Car Parks have met. On 13^th February 2026 the CMA fined the company £473,000 for failing to answer a legal information notice issued in July 2025: three months without a response, despite seven attempts. The fine is about the non-response, not about how drivers were treated. Euro Car Parks has appealed to the High Court, and the fine is not payable until that is decided.

Charged at a petrol station?

The investigation does not cancel anything, and nobody knows yet what the CMA will find. What it does is put a public spotlight on forecourt charges: time spent queuing for a pump, paying at the kiosk or waiting for the car wash. If that is what your charge is for, say so in your appeal now, alongside the usual questions about the signs, the grace period and, for a posted notice, whether it arrived in time.

Euro Car Parks is a British Parking Association member, so if it rejects your appeal the next stage is POPLA. Our Euro Car Parks appeal guide sets out the grounds that work most often.