Volkswagen defending two ACCC actions and five class actions in same Australian courtroom

THESE people say they were deceived by Volkswagen over ‘dieselgate’. Now they will get their day in court, as VW defends seven actions at once in a legal and PR nightmare.

Robyn Richardson and Alister Dalton are lead applicants in the ‘dieselgate’ class action against VW and Audi. Picture: Rohan Kelly

VW faces a legal and public relations nightmare from Monday with seven major Australian cases due to begin over the international scandal known as “dieselgate”.

Federal Court room 18A in downtown Sydney will be Ground Zero for the world’s largest carmaker as it simultaneously defends two actions by the consumer cops and five class actions all over allegations it fitted software known as “defeat devices” to lower levels of pollution during emission testing.

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Emissions testing on a VW Golf in California in 2016, after the dieselgate scandal broke. Picture: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission accuses VW and subsidiary Audi of alleging misleading or deceptive conduct.

Law firms Maurice Blackburn and Bannister claim in their class actions that as many as 100,000 VW, Audi and Skoda owners suffered a financial loss of as much as the entire purchase price, plus inconvenience costs and punitive damages given that had the true emissions of the cars been known they would not have been able to be registered in Australia.

Alister Dalton of Newcastle is the lead applicant in Maurice Blackburn’s case against VW; Robyn Richardson is in the firm’s action against Audi.

Robyn Richardson and Alister Dalton are lead applicants in the ‘dieselgate’ class action against VW and Audi. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Both say they felt deceived.

Maurice Blackburn is also bringing a claim against VW subsidiary Skoda; Bannister is only going after VW and Audi.

Justice Lindsay Foster is juggling all seven cases simultaneously. The various parties could be represented by as many as 20 lawyers and barristers.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims has previously said he was “mystified” by VW’s approach to the case, given the carmaker has admitted it fitted the devices to 11 million cars around the world and that it subsequently applied a “fix”.

In 2016 VW set aside $24 billion to pay for recalls and legal claims around the world. Last year it was ordered by a US federal judge to pay a criminal fine of $3.8 billion.

A VW Australia spokesman said it “Volkswagen has long maintained there is no foundation for the current lawsuits in Australia because the vehicles fully satisfied the emission standards to which they were originally certified.

“Furthermore, the vehicles continue to satisfy European and Australian emission standards following the application of the update to the engine control software.”

The VW spokesman said it was concerned “competing class actions remain on foot, meaning that two sets of lawyers are seeking to represent the interests of group members.

“We have urged those lawyers to resolve this overlap since 2015, but unfortunately they have not.”

Originally published as Volkswagen defending two ACCC actions and five class actions in same Australian courtroom