Filenews 18 October 2025 - by Vassos Vassiliou
A car sales company asks buyers, when they contact it in order to secure a certificate that their vehicle is not pending any recall from the manufacturing company, etc., to sign a document in which they take responsibility themselves, instead of the seller.
The signing of the relevant document has already been requested by an owner, who bought the vehicle new and simply decided to sell it, as stated before the Parliamentary Committees on Finance and Transport by MP Mr. Stavros Papadouris. He called on the Minister of Transport, Mr. Alexis Vafeadis, who was present, to examine the whole issue.
It seems, said Mr. Papadouris, that companies have consulted their legal advisors and have prepared documents that citizens will sign and take responsibility for the revocations themselves.
"In the end, a new impasse will be created, and if in the future a problem of a similar scale to that of the airbags arises, we will not find a solution," he added.
The MP of the Ecologists, referring to the need to supervise the market, remarked: "The situation has started to get out of hand and the messages that reach us are not good and I am not talking only about the charges as happened in the case of the Takata airbags. Specifically, I mention the following: Owner of a new vehicle who then decided to sell it (he also paid €30 to be given a certificate from the company from which he bought it) and received the following answer:
"Regarding your request (for any pending recalls of the vehicle) we inform you that it has not been possible to find information whether or not it exists from the manufacturer at this time."
I want to understand what this particular owner should do when he wants to transfer his vehicle, said Mr. Papadouris, who added: The most worrying thing, however, is that some people sat down and prepared a second document which they attach (along with the certificate) and which includes some legal terms and I read you the most dangerous term recorded in the document: "The owner, hereby irrevocably declares that the company was not or is not the distributor or economic operator that made the above mentioned vehicle available to the owner in any way. The owner also acknowledges that it is commercially and practically impossible for the company to know any competent economic operator."
And Mr. Papadouris continued: What does the company say with the specific article 3 that I read? It tells the owner to declare (as the owner) that I am (as a company) neither the distributor, nor the agent nor the responsible economic operator. In this way, the company exempts itself from the relevant regulation of the legislation and abdicates its responsibilities.
Really, I was left with my mouth open, said Mr. Papdouris, who added that if the owner signs the specific paper, which is a legal document, he takes responsibility for the recall process of his vehicle.
So, Mr. Minister (he said addressing Mr. Alexis Vafeadis) you need to see how you handle the issues of market surveillance in matters of vehicle recalls.
Mr. Vafeadis stated that he is not aware of this practice and that the issue will be examined.