VW Diesel Emissions Australian Class Action Damages – in-principle settlement reached

Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda have reached an in-principle settlement of Australian class actions related to the diesel emissions issue; the settlement will now need to be approved by the Federal Court of Australia. The class actions alleged that affected vehicles were fitted with illegal defeat devices that were designed to cheat emissions tests, and the class actions sought to recover compensation for the Australian motorists who had purchased around 100,000 affected vehicles across 21 different models. RBB’s Patrick Smith, assisted by George Tucker, Tao Platt and Alex Suchanek, had prepared an expert report that was submitted to the Federal Court, to address questions about how the diesel emissions issue might have affected the value of the affected vehicles, in particular if consumers had had access to more information at the time of purchase. RBB was instructed by Maurice Blackburn, solicitors who launched the class action in November 2015.