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Carmakers defeat most allegations in U.K. dieselgate case
Class action suit alleged they manipulated vehicles to cheat on emissions tests
Workers on the assembly line at the Mercedes-Benz Group AG plant in Sindelfingen, Germany. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg)
Key Takeaways:
- A London court largely rejected claims that Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Renault and others used illegal defeat devices, ruling in a major U.K. emissions class action.
- The case involved 1.6 million claimants and 38 allegations, but only two were upheld, undermining one of the country’s largest mass claims.
- The court will hold an October hearing to determine consequences and potential payouts, if any, following the partial dismissal of claims.
Car manufacturers including Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Ford Motor Co. and Renault SA largely won a case over allegations they manipulated vehicles to cheat on emissions tests, after a London court rejected most of the claims in the closely watched class action case.
The judgment, which also covers Nissan Motor Co. and a unit of Stellantis NV., follows a 15-week trial over the decade-old scandal that led to 1.6 million claimants accusing the firms of using banned “defeat devices” to cheat on emission tests.
The allegations tied to the original 2015 scandal have cost Volkswagen AG more than $30 billion and have led to multiple criminal convictions. Volkswagen is not among the five lead defendants in the U.K. trial. The court has upheld only two out of 38 prohibited defeat device allegations, according to Volkswagen. “The implications for the claimants’ case and prospects in respect of the wider cohort of vehicles are clear.”
The ruling is a blow to one of the largest mass claims in the country’s history and sets a precedent for similar cases against nine other carmakers in the U.K.
“There is no allegation that any of them contained a device which is the same as the Volkswagen prohibited defeat device at the center of dieselgate,” the judge said in the ruling. “Any thought that the answer to this case is obvious must therefore be put firmly to one side.”
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The high court will hold a separate hearing in October to decide the consequences of the judgment and what, if anything, the car companies might need to pay out.
The court found most of the tested vehicles were compliant with regulations, a spokesperson for Mercedes said after the ruling. “We continue to regard the claims being pursued in Quantum Trial as unfounded. The court ruled expressly that the functionality objected to did not reduce the effectiveness of the emissions control system.”
Spokespeople for Ford, Renault, Nissan, Stellantis, and lawyers for the claimants didn’t immediately comment on the ruling. The carmakers had previously denied the allegations and argued the claims were misconceived and meritless.
