EU mileage database mooted as car clocking costs consumers €60m yearly

Car clocking is costing Irish consumers up to €60m every year, as the EU looks to stamp out the practice by creating a mileage database.

The European Parliament’s Transport Committee has called for a pan-European mileage database to be created in an attempt to stamp out a practice that could be costing consumers up to €9.6bn annually across the EU.

Car clocking involves winding back the odometer reading on a vehicle for the purpose of artificially inflating its value, and was made illegal in Ireland for the first time in February and is punishable by a fine of €2,500 and/or a maximum jail term of three months.