The High Court has granted group litigation orders against six motor-vehicle giants in claims that are likely to run to millions of pounds and take several years to resolve.
The High Court in London yesterday (5 February) granted group litigation orders (GLOs) against six major car manufacturers over allegations of emissions cheating. Thousands of claimants are accusing Nissan, Vauxhall, Stellantis (formerly Fiat-Chrysler), Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and Volkswagen of installing devices in their vehicles to manipulate emissions tests. The claims involve hundreds of thousands of vehicles and allege breaches of consumer protection laws, misrepresentation of environmental performance, and conspiracy to deceive regulators and the public, demonstrating that the scope of the claims reaches way beyond the question of whether or not the manufacturers did indeed wilfully misrepresent their emissions data, raising serious questions about corporate responsibility, consumer rights and environmental protection.
Was there ever any doubt that the GLOs would be granted? Nicola Vinovrški, a partner with Milberg London, which is leading on the Vauxhall claim and is also part of the Mercedes-Benz case, tells CDR how in December the President of the King’s Bench Division, Dame Victoria Sharp, “made it very clear that the court is going to use its case-management powers to manage these cases together, that [she] expects a high level of cooperation on both sides, and that it was likely that GLOs would be appropriate”.
Vinovrški is full of praise for how the court approached the claims, noting that “no one has ever made six GLOs in a two-day hearing before.”
For the full article written by Rob Harkavy (which includes comments from CORLA Committee Member Nicola Vinovrški) and published by Commercial Dispute Resolution News on 6 February 2024, click here.
Published on February 7, 2024 by CORLA