Euroconsumers is pleased with the European Commission’s decision which has led to car maker Stellantis compensating affected consumers for the cost of replacing faulty AdBlue tanks in their Citroen and Peugeot cars.

This gives all European consumers affected by the problem the same level of redress they’ve already agreed for owners in Italy (thanks to the action of our member there, Altroconsumo), ending the unfair differential treatment of consumers across the EU. 

Navigating the consumer compensation journey

On January 16th 2025, Stellantis launched a compensation platform, which should make claiming compensation straightforward. The platform is also a gateway for consumers seeking compensation for problems with the PureTech 1.2 engine whose timing belt wore out too quickly.

All four Euroconsumers countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium) are included in the platform and can start creating dossiers and requesting compensation. However, claims for the PureTech engine from Spain or France will be prioritized first, with the rest of the countries being addressed from the end of February. There is no specific information available yet for the AdBlue compensation timing.

A watchful eye on the compensation claims process

Given that our members had already flagged up issues with the previous claim process, they will be watching carefully and gathering consumer feedback on how the new platform is working. 

In May 2024, Altroconsumo had to again report Stellantis to the national authority for non-compliance with compensation commitments, for example errors in calculating financial contributions, and incidences of non-payment. 

Stellantis reported they had resolved these, but Testachats and Altroconsumo are providing online forms where people can report any other delays or hurdles as the compensation scheme is rolled out.  

We’ve noticed a few issues with the newly launched platform too. For example, it wasn’t immediately accessible, likely due to a high number of users. Also, communications could have been much clearer – combining both PureTech and AdBlue caused confusion. 

Rest assured, we will  continue to monitor the situation closely.

The rest of this blog recaps the AdBlue story, looks at how the power of a strong consumer network got us here, and why we’ll remain vigilant in assessing the process of getting money back where it belongs – in consumers’ pockets.

The AdBlue story 

The Commission decision is the latest development in an issue first picked up by Euroconsumers’ CICLE tool. CICLE is an innovative new cross-border consumer complaints tracker that can quickly spot similar issues as they emerge in different countries and alert authorities.

In 2022, CICLE tracked a growing number of complaints from Citroen and Peugeot car owners about problems with the anti-pollution system in their cars’ diesel tanks. Diesel cars need to regularly top up their tanks with AdBlue to keep emissions within EU rules – if the levels are wrong, cars won’t meet legal requirements and could be immobilized. 

Drivers found that warning lights about low AdBlue levels were coming on when the tank was full, which then could automatically stop the engine starting. Customers who contacted Citroen were told to replace the whole tank system at a cost of around €1000.

The work of all of our members and consumers across Italy, Spain and Belgium has played a major part in detecting the issue, alerting the authorities that consumers were being charged to fix a fault that was not their responsibility to put right. 

Compensation comes drip by drip

Italian consumers’ had the first success. Euroconsumers member Altroconsumo, raised the issue and started the process that eventually led to compensation commitments on a European scale. As a result, authorities there required Stellantis to pay compensation to car owners left out of pocket by the AdBlue tanks’ malfunction.  

But Euroconsumers’ and its members have had to fight hard to secure equal redress for everyone, calling on the company to give the same compensation to consumers affected by the exact same issue in its other member countries. 

In Belgium, for example, after Testachats original request for compensation was ignored, they asked the company to match the compensation already granted to consumers in Italy. Stellantis refused, so next Testachats promised class litigation if the company continued to refuse to compensate Belgian consumers. 

Demands for equal treatment for car owners left out of pocket by the AdBlue tanks’ malfunction were then taken further.  Following monitoring reports from Testachats, OCU in Spain and Altroconsumo in Italy, BEUC raised the scale of the continuing problem with the European Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC). BEUC asked the CPC network to launch an EU-wide investigation into this issue. 

In December 2024, the Commission finally intervened and obtained clear commitments from Stellantis that make sure consumer rights are respected for everyone affected, not just Euroconsumers’ member states but anywhere in the EU.  

Getting compensation into consumers’ pockets

Affected consumers are now set to receive a total of €6 million in damages and discounts to compensate the money they had to spend on replacing tanks which were faulty through no fault of their own. 

Euroconsumers’ has shown how innovative platforms like CICLE and a cross-border network can spearhead victories not just for our members, but for all European motorists. 

Our members will continue to support consumers on the road to redress. We’ll continue to closely monitor the implementation of the compensation scheme and push for all the measures to be executed swiftly as set out by the Commission’s demands.