On 13 March 2026, the BCA opened an investigation into AutoScout24, which operates an online platform and an app connecting sellers and buyers of used vehicles (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 13 March 2026). This investigation was prompted by a complaint by TCS Mobility (TCS), a new market entrant operating a competing platform. TCS alleged that AutoScout24 abused its dominant position by discouraging sellers of used vehicles from “multi-homing”, i.e., relying simultaneously on competing platforms to realise sales. More specifically, TCS argued that AutoScout24 had suddenly blocked the automated transfer of data from its platform to TCS’s platform, thereby forcing sellers which were intent on listing a vehicle on TCS’s platform as well to re-enter manually the extensive data required to sell a vehicle. TCS therefore sought interim measures to restore the automated transfers of data to its platform.

Following a prima facie review, the BCA concluded that the conditions to grant interim measures were satisfied:

• Dominant position. the BCA first found that AutoScout24 can be considered to hold a dominant position and appears to be an unavoidable trading partner for professional car dealers due to network effects. This is because the decision to publish a paid advertisement is in large part driven by the significant number of visitors on the platform, which in turn is explained by the many advertisements on that platform.
• Abuse. AutoScout24 normally allows transfers of data from its platform to competing platforms. However, this changed when TCS added a new pricing model pursuant to which TCS charges for the contacts initiated by prospective buyers following the publication of the advertisement (“pay-per-lead” model) rather than for the publication of the advertisement as such (“pay-per-list” model). This suggests that AutoScout24 took issue with the competitive pressure exerted by TCS in applying the new pricing model.

Urgent and difficult-to-remedy harm. The BCA found that the sellers’ reluctance to manually encode the data required to sell a vehicle twice meant that the practice was likely to prevent TCS from retaining and acquiring customers, thus preventing it from reaching the critical mass necessary to remain active on the market. The harm was in other words urgent and, according to the BCA, would also be difficult to remedy after the fact.

The BCA therefore ordered AutoScout24 to restore the automated transfer of data encoded on its platform to TCS’s platform, subject to penalty payments. AutoScout24 also had to send a notice to all its professional clients and publish it for 90 days on the professional section of its website, explaining that it would allow the transfer of data from its platform to TCS’s platform and would permit these data to be updated in real time. The interim measures are likely to apply until the BCA adopts a decision on the existence of an infringement or until the proceedings on the merits are otherwise concluded, for instance by a settlement decision or behavioural commitments made binding by the BCA