A New Jersey federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit filed by drivers who claim that BWM and Robert Bosch LLC used emissions-cheating software to make their vehicles seem as if they had lower levels of pollutants than they actually did.
According to U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty, the drivers in the BWM class action lawsuit did not sufficiently show that they purchased vehicles that contained the emission-cheating devices.
Judge McNulty said that the testing performed on vehicles was insufficient. Notably, Judge McNulty added that the customers relied on testing of โone six-year-old X5 model car with 60,000 miles on the odometer,โ a vehicle which none of the drivers in the proposed Class owned.
According to the judge, previous successful class action lawsuits about companies allegedly using emissions-cheating devices had done a better job of establishing a connection between testing conducted by drivers and the claim that emissions-cheating devices had been used in a particular model of car.
Additionally, Judge McNulty said that the drivers did not fully established that there was โa discrepancy between on-road and laboratory emissions levels.โ
The judge added that the customers did not explain that the alleged difference between real and tested performance was caused by the presence of an emissions-cheating software device.
The BMW emissions class action lawsuit was filed by Garner Rickman in March 2018. In August 2018, multiple similar class action lawsuits were consolidated into one.
The customers asserted that they were financially injured by BMW and Boschโs choice to fit vehicles with emissions-cheating devices. Allegedly, the vehicles were advertised as โclean dieselโ vehicles, but in reality, they were not clean diesel at all.
The customers asserted that they paid a premium for vehicles that were advertised as more environmentally friendly, a premium that cost them between $1,500 and $20,000 more than they would have paid for a non clean diesel vehicle.
Allegedly, had they known that the vehicle was not a clean diesel vehicle, they would not have purchased it or would not have paid as much as they had for it.
This is not the first time that BWM has faced such allegations โ consumers have filed other class action lawsuits over the issue. Though BMW and Bosch had attempted to have those emissions class action lawsuits dismissed, that attempt was not successful.
Numerous other car manufacturers have faced similar emissions scandal class action lawsuits, and this claim was part of the effort by drivers to hold car companies accountable for defrauding emissions regulators and financially injuring customers who paid a premium for vehicles that are less desirable and valuable than they were advertised to be.
The drivers are represented by James E. Cecchi and Caroline Bartlett of Carella Byrne Cecchi Olstein Brody & Agnello PC, Steve W. Berman, Sean R. Matt and Jessica A. Thompson of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, and Christopher A. Seeger of Seeger Weiss LLP.
The BMW Emissions Fraud Class Action Lawsuit is Rickman, et al. v. BMW of North America LLC, Case No. 2:18-cv-04363, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
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