The Bottom Line
- Asset Protection: Your company’s vehicles are unlikely to be permanently confiscated just for having an odometer blocker installed. An advisor to the Supreme Court recommends simply removing the illegal device and returning the high-value asset (the car).
- Disclosure is Key: While the vehicle won’t be seized, its official record with the Dutch Vehicle Authority (RDW) will likely be flagged as “illogical.” This creates a permanent record of tampering that will impact resale value and requires disclosure in future transactions.
- Focus Shifts to Administration: The legal remedy is shifting from asset destruction to administrative flagging. This protects the integrity of the used car market through transparency rather than the drastic measure of forfeiture.
The Details
The Dutch Public Prosecutor’s office has pursued an aggressive strategy against odometer fraud, arguing that cars fitted with “kilometer-blockers” should be permanently withdrawn from circulation. Their argument is that once the mileage is tampered with, a vehicle’s history becomes fundamentally unreliable, undermining the integrity of the commercial market. However, in a key advisory opinion to the Supreme Court, the Advocate General has pushed back against this approach, signaling a major clarification on how Dutch law treats valuable but tampered assets.
The Advocate General’s reasoning hinges on the principle of proportionality. The measure of permanent withdrawal (confiscation) is intended for items that are inherently dangerous or illegal to possess, such as illegal firearms or narcotics. A car, even with an incorrect odometer reading, does not fall into this category. Expert analysis presented to the court confirmed that such vehicles pose no inherent threat to road safety. The primary issue is not one of public danger, but of commercial transparency and potential economic harm to future buyers.
Ultimately, the Advocate General concluded that destroying a valuable asset is too heavy-handed a solution for what is essentially an information problem. A far more appropriate and proportionate remedy is to correct the public record. The Dutch Vehicle Authority (RDW) has the ability to flag a vehicle’s mileage history as “illogical.” This action permanently attaches a warning to the vehicle’s registration, alerting any potential buyer to the discrepancy. This approach protects market integrity and consumer interests effectively without resorting to the destruction of property. The illegal blocker device itself, however, is subject to confiscation.
Source
Advocate General at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands
