More than 300,000 Mercedes diesel car owners have filed complaints in a London court. The accusation: Unauthorized defeat devices would have led to excessive nitrogen oxide emissions in their cars. The carmaker misled buyers about compliance with limit values.
Mercedes denies having installed any devices in the vehicles that affect emissions. According to the Reuters news agency, a spokesman said the company considered the allegations to be unfounded and would vigorously defend against them.
The class action is reminiscent of that Volkswagen-scandal a few years ago. Volkswagen had admitted that during emissions tests in the USA to have cheated. So far, this has cost the group around 32 billion euros in damages, penalties and legal costs.
In addition to the 300,000 lawsuits already pending against Mercedes-Benz in London, another 35,000 are being prepared. A lawyer said at a preliminary hearing on Thursday. According to Reuters, Mercedes-Benz has agreed with the plaintiffs to treat all cases together.
At the same time, Mercedes-Benz is to pay a fine of millions in South Korea. It is about cartel agreements in connection with exhaust gas cleaning systems for diesel vehicles. South Korea’s competition authority accused Mercedes as well bmw, Audi and Volkswagen said in a statement Thursday their actions had “restricted competition and consumer choice.” According to the national news agency Yonhap, the companies can take legal action against the decision of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).
“Consensus among the four companies”
The agency said the fines were provisionally set at 20.7 billion won ($17.3 million) for Mercedes-Benz, 15.7 billion won for BMW and 5.9 billion won for Audi – a total of 42.3 billion won (31.3 million euros). Volkswagen does not have to pay a fine because the affected models were not sold in South Korea.
The authority came to the conclusion that there was “a consensus among the four companies to reduce the consumption of urea solutions”. Your behavior is tantamount to an agreement. Toxic nitrogen oxide emissions are to be reduced with a special urea solution. For certain diesel vehicles, the solution must be added to the tank in addition to the fuel.
In 2021, the EU Commission imposed high fines on BMW and Volkswagen for illegal agreements on so-called Adblue tanks. The special urea solution is in the tanks used to clean exhaust gases in diesel cars. The Mercedes-Benz Group (formerly Daimler) got off without a fine because of the leniency program.
According to the car manufacturers, the investigation in South Korea dealt with the same facts that were already the subject of the European Commission’s antitrust proceedings. “Agreements or an exchange of information on prices, quantities or market sharing were not the subject of the proceedings,” said Mercedes-Benz. The company has cooperated with the FTC. BMW announced that it would initially wait for the authority’s written justification.