Volkswagen Consumer Law Class Action Now Likely
Monday 12 October 2015 @ 1.11 p.m. | Trade & Commerce
A class action is "likely" according to Australian firm, Maurice Blackburn Laywers, after Volkswagen announced on 7 September 2015 that approximately 90,000 Australian vehicles may be affected.
Background to the Volkswagen Issue
As previously detailed in a TimeBase article, defeat devices were used to make vehicles perform better in testing than in real world operations.
When the cars were operating under controlled laboratory conditions - which typically involved putting them on a stationary test rig - the device appears to have put the vehicle into a sort of safety mode in which the engine ran below normal power and performance. Once on the road, the engines switched from this test mode.
The Class Action
According to Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, the class actions mechanism is the best chance people have of holding companies that have caused mass wrongdoing to account, and Maurice Blackburn urge anyone affected by this recall to register their interest with the law firm itself.
According to class actions principal Damian Scattini, as quoted by the Guardian, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers has been contacted by over 1,000 people with concerns ranging from the resale values of the vehicles, the impact of repairs on engines’ longevity and environmental concerns:
“I would imagine that if you were a VW owner then you would join the action, why wouldn’t you? It won’t cost you anything and it seems like your one opportunity to get back from Volkswagen what they’ve done to you.”
Paul Fletcher, the minister for major projects, said Volkswagen has breached Australian consumer law by fitting vehicles with devices designed to disguise the amount of emissions produced and he is keenly watching the ACCC investigation, according to the Guardian:
“This a breach of the design rules so that is a very troubling thing and, in turn, a breach of the Australian consumer law. Now of course, we need to understand what their plan is to correct … the vehicles that have this device installed, and we are pressing them with this information.
We are pursuing, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in particular, this question of whether there have been breaches of the law, and what redress or what remedies are available for breaching consumer law.”
The company has advised, according to 9 News, that owners of the affected models do not need to take any action until a solution is made available by its head office in Germany.
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