Carmakers face key trial in UK lawsuits, decade after dieselgate scandal
UK court to decide whether diesel cars are ‘defeat devices’
A total of 1.6 million plaintiffs filed suit against 14 automakers
Landmark case comes ten years after VW ‘dieselgate’ scandal
LONDON, – Some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers face a pivotal hearing in London’s High Court on Monday; Lawyers representing 1.6 million plaintiffs accuse them of cheating on diesel emissions tests a decade after Volkswagen’s “diesel cap” scandal.
In one of the largest class-action lawsuits in British legal history, owners of diesel vehicles produced by the Peugeot and Citroen brands owned by Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Nissan, Renault and Stellantis claim the companies are using illegal ‘defeat devices’.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys said these devices detect vehicles while they are being tested and ensure emissions are kept within legal limits, but do not do so while the cars are on the road.
But the manufacturers say the claims are fundamentally flawed and deny any similarities to the scandal that broke in 2015 and cost Volkswagen billions of euros in fines and compensation.
Mercedes-Benz said its emissions control systems were legally and technically justified.
‘DEFEAT DEVICES’ TRIAL BEGINS
The trial will focus on a small sample of diesel vehicles produced by five manufacturers sued by nearly 850,000 plaintiffs, with the aim of determining whether these vehicles use banned defeat devices. The damages that the court ruled should be paid will be decided at the next hearing next year.
The court’s decision will also be binding on hundreds of thousands of similar claims against other manufacturers, including Stellantis-owned Vauxhall/Opel and BMW.
Martyn Day, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers at firm Leigh Day, said the allegations, if proven, would “represent one of the most egregious breaches of corporate trust in modern times”.
VW’s admission that it used defeat devices in emissions tests led to the automaker paying more than €32 billion in vehicle refurbishments, fines and legal costs; Former Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn faces criminal charges, but his trial was postponed this month on health grounds.
CASES, PENALTIES AROUND THE WORLD
This isn’t the first time London’s High Court, which ruled against VW in 2020, has been asked to rule on defeat devices. VW settled these claims in 2022 without admitting any liability.
The current set of claims against a total of 14 manufacturers is much larger than the VW case; The plaintiffs’ lawyers had previously valued the case as a whole at around £6bn.
Automakers are facing lawsuits around the world, including in the Netherlands, where a court ruled in July that diesel cars sold by Stellantis brands Opel, Peugeot-Citroen and DS contained defeat devices. He said Stellantis’ decision was wrong.
Manufacturers and suppliers also paid fines and reached settlements in the United States and elsewhere to resolve investigations into diesel vehicle emissions.
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