VW Emissions Scandal Sparks Another Class Action Lawsuit

Volkswagen Group of America has been hit with a class action lawsuit shortly after the company’s emission scandal unfolded.

Lead plaintiff Christopher D’Angelo claims that VW misled consumers into purchasing environmentally-friendly “clean diesel” automobiles.

The VW lawsuit alleges that the deceptive advertising by Volkswagen led consumers to believe their cars were cleaner for the environment and were more fuel efficient, when in fact this is not the case. Certain VW vehicles produce unsafe diesel emissions 10 to 40 times higher than the levels established as safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Not only did the cars not perform cleanly as advertised, the lawsuit explains, but VW intentionally installed devices in these vehicles to run a particular way during emission testing that would conceal the actual emissions the vehicles had.

Using this “defeat device” in the emission control system, the cars were able to pass emissions tests, but during normal driving, these cars emitted diesel pollution into the environment at levels way beyond federal and California compliance levels.

Plaintiff D’Angelo purchased a Certified Pre-owned Volkswagen Passat from a dealership in Los Angeles County in 2015. Not long after his purchase, the news about the Volkswagen scandal explaining the company’s alleged use of a defeat device in the emission control system of certain vehicles.

D’Angelo seeks to represent a Class of “All owners or lessees of VW Clean Diesel Vehicles who purchased or leased a new or used vehicle in the United States or its territories and protectorates from an authorized VW dealership between 2009 and 2015 that contains software designed to hide the vehicle’s true emission levels.”

The Class is estimated to include hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions, of individuals who are scattered throughout the country.

The Volkswagen class action lawsuit seeks injunctive relief to stop VW from selling the environmentally noncompliant diesel VW cars to prevent further harm to consumers through Volkswagen’s allegedly misleading advertising.

They also seek damages from Volkswagen to bring their vehicles into compliance, general and special damages, and punitive or exemplary damages against the defendant.

VW’s Alleged Misconduct

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, VW Clean Diesel vehicles have illegally installed software to essentially “cheat” on emissions testing.

The software reading certain vehicle inputs such as steering wheel position, vehicle speed, barometric pressure and how long the engine has been operating.

Based on the information gathered, if the software senses the data from the various inputs matches up with an emission testing situation, the software enables the vehicle to produce compliant emission results during testing.

When the vehicle was not running during a test condition, but was running during normal driving conditions, the levels of harmful nitrous oxide released in the environment increased to exceed EPA compliant levels by a factor of 10 to 40 times.

In 2014, a study was done by West Virginia University, commissioned by the International Council on Clean Transportation, and the results found the in-use vehicle emissions for the 2012 Jetta and 2013 Passat were much higher than allowed. VW maintained that there were “technical issues” and the results were due to “unexpected in-use conditions.”

VW issued a volunteer recall but testing showed only a limited benefit, so a more detailed investigation was launched by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

Once VW realized that they would not have certificates of conformity issued for environmental compliance of the 2016 model year VW diesel vehicles, VW finally admitted about the defeat device software that was installed.

UPDATE: On June 28, 2016, Volkswagen reached proposed settlements with both the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission following the VW emissions scandal. VW’s deal with the DOJ includes up to $14.7 billion along with vehicle buyback provisions as well as funding for pollution control programs. In addition to the DOJ settlement, Volkswagen will also spend up to $10 billion in a buyback and lease termination settlement with the FTC that is expected to include about 475,000 vehicles.

UPDATE 2: The Volkswagen, Audi diesel emissions class action settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim!