10:45 am, December 8, 2025
Cox Automotive has said it has ‘serious concerns’ that the Constellation Automotive acquisition of Aston Barclay ‘risks creating a tipping-effect whereby runaway network effects result in BCA commanding an unassailable market position’ in a newly published document.
The automotive business, that owns auction house Manheim, responded as part of phase two of the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into the completed acquisition.
The report is now published on the government website and highlights the risks Cox Automotive feels the market would face and the points it challenges from the merging companies’ joint response.
In the joint response document, the two auction houses claimed Aston Barclay was a ‘failing firm’ and this prompted the sale but Cox has refuted this quoting comments made by the smaller firm earlier in 2025.
It said that the ‘apparent financial health and viability of the Aston Barclay business based on publicly available financial reporting and taking into account public statements made by senior employees, including statements by its Chief Customer Officer in early 2025 that, ‘2024 has been a strong year’ for Aston Barclay, and that ‘2025 is already gearing up to be a fantastic year for Aston Barclay.’
It added that it didn’t believe Aston Barclay had pursued any options, as it said if the Constellation deal hadn’t happened it would have explored selling sites separately.
Although sections of the document are redacted, Cox writes in its report that ‘the Joint Submission incorrectly classes Aston Barclay as ‘part of a large pack of effective other providers’, including G3, Wilsons, City Auction Group, and other smaller auction operators.’
It adds: ‘This observation is contradicted by the size and scale of the Aston Barclay business (which operates across five sites) in comparison to those other auction operators, and not does it reflect Aston Barclay’s ability to win or retain high-volume contracts and attract a large buyer base.
‘The Joint Submission also uses the global revenues (generated outside of the UK) for the Constellation group and Cox Enterprises in order to create a misleading impression of the difference in size between these two businesses (on the one hand) and Aston Barclay in the UK (on the other).’
Cox Automotive said Aston Barclay had played a ‘disruptive role in the competitive process’ even when it hadn’t won large contracts from BCA or Aston Barclay, meaning the merger ‘results in the loss of a key competitor who has developed a reputation among customers’.
It claims that the negotiations and sale ‘commencing in the latter part of 2024 destabilised or adversely affected Aston Barclay’s operations on the market, such matters should be taken into account as part of any consultation’.
The investigation will continue with a preliminary report expected from the CMA in January 2026.
