A year ago Mario Monti, the European competition commissioner, threatened to tear up the exemption completely, leaving supermarkets free to sell any car at any price. Instead, a new block exemption will be announced in September.

Motor industry guru Professor Garel Rhys at the Cardiff Bus School says: "The commission has taken on board the argument that, if there were no restrictions, there could be less competition. A free-for-all could see big retailers forcing dealers out of business."

The new block exemption will be formally unveiled in September, but Rhys reckons makers will still have huge control. The new system will force makers to opt between either a selective or a geographically exclusive system.

Rhys says: "Makers will be able to set criteria but anyone who meets them will have to be granted a franchise. Alternatively, they can give dealers geographic areas - however dealers will now be free to appoint sub-dealers."

Opt for selective, and a Ford dealer in one area would be free to set up in every other locality.

At the moment, dealers who sell a car have to be able to service it. This link will now be broken, allowing companies to specialise in either selling cars or just servicing them.

Dealers will also be free to sell multiple brands from one site and won't have to dedicate specific sales people to specific brands. Dealers will also be able to sell cars wherever they like over the web.

Much of this sounds revolutionary, and Rhys expects politicians to make much of the changes and for the carmakers to moan loudly. But he adds: "the car makers know they retain control.

This scenario is far, far better than they expected a year ago. They can still stop retailers selling cars. Going multi-brand sounds attractive, but in practice is a big risk. And the car makers have spent billions on their own websites for years - the spectre of a new breed of internet brokers poaching all the business is unreal."

Our Analysis: Suppliers in other industries always envy the control that car makers have over their dealers. Under the current law, makers can withdraw the right to sell their range.

Interestingly, the block exemption has not led to huge profits for the intermediaries. Rhys points out that, on average in the EU, car dealers make a net profit of less than 1% on mass-market brands and of 2% on quality brands. In fact, the number of franchised dealers in Europe has dropped from 20,000 to just 6,000.

Apparently the carmakers have not benefited hugely either. Certainly their profitability could hardly be described as high. Other industries which operate select systems or block exemptions include clothing and perfumery. Again, these are hardly high profit industries.