Volkswagen Australia hit with class action lawsuit
Volkswagen has been driven into its first Australian class action lawsuit by Bannister Law on Friday following its diesel emissions scandal.
Volkswagen has been under scrutiny for installing devices in its diesel luxury vehicles to cheat environment regulators in the US. The US and California environmental regulators claimed that Porsche and Audi cars have also been involved in the scandal Bannister Law filed two cases of class action against Volkswagen Australia and Audi Australia in Australia’s federal court on Friday.
“In supplying cars containing the defeat device, the statutory guarantee was not complied with. If we’re successful on that part of the claim, the customer may be entitled to a refund of the purchase,” Bannister Law founder Charles Bannister said in a statement, as quoted via the Sydney Morning Herald. He added that in case the allegations are proved against the German carmaker, it would have to face financial compensation amounting to billions of dollars considering there are 91,000 affected vehicles.
Volkswagen has confirmed that it used defeat devices in vehicles manufactured between 2008 and 2014 and sold around 90,000 vehicles in Australia. However, it has not yet specified how it will rectify the problem.
The US Environmental Protection Agency said that it was now inspecting the 3.0-litre V6 diesel engines sold between 2014 and 2016. These engines are widely used in more expensive and larger models like the Porsche Cayenne sports car. The agency also continues to look into the smaller engines that contain emissions test-deceiving software.
The EPA claimed that the Volkswagen vehicles, despite passing the emissions test have been found emitting pollutant nitrogen oxide nine times more than what is allowed on the road. On EPA’s inspection of 3.0-litre V6 engines, the giant car manufacturer claimed that it has not used any emission-cheating device in those engines, but it would still cooperate in the investigation completely with the agency.
On Sep. 18, the agency found out illegal software installed on the carmaker’s products running in the market for three generations now. Volkswagen’s answer to the inspection result is still awaited.
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