Australian car owners are threatening to sue Volkswagen after learning that their cars are embroiled in the worldwide emission-rigging scandal.
More than a fortnight after the scandal emerged, Volkswagen has admitted that more than 90,000 local cars are fitted out with software that cheats pollution tests.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn is preparing to launch a class action law suit against the automobile giant under consumer law and has been contacted by nearly 1,000 claimants so far.
Class actions principal Damian Scattini said that customer concerns ranged from the resale values of the vehicles, the impact of repairs on engines’ longevity and environmental concerns.
“I would imagine that if you were a VW owner then you would join the action, why wouldn’t you? It won’t cost you anything and it seems like your one opportunity to get back from Volkswagen what they’ve done to you,” he told AAP.
Paul Fletcher, the minister for major projects, said Volkswagen has breached Australian consumer law by fitting vehicles with devices designed to disguise the amount of emissions produced.
“This a breach of the design rules so that is a very troubling thing and, in turn, a breach of the Australian consumer law,” Fletcher told ABC TV on Thursday. “Now of course, we need to understand what their plan is to correct … the vehicles that have this device installed, and we are pressing them with this information.
“We are pursuing, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in particular, this question of whether there have been breaches of the law, and what redress or what remedies are available for breaching consumer law.”
But the minister would not be drawn on whether the federal government would take the car company to court over the breaches, insisting the ACCC was the appropriate “enforcement agency”.
The ACCC is conducting an investigation into the scandal, which is thought to affect 11m vehicles worldwide. VW could face a fine of $1.1m per breach if a court finds it did breach certain consumer laws.
Volkswagen Australia admitted 77,149 of its cars sold between 2008 and 2015 were fitted with software that cheated pollution tests, while its subsidiary Audi Australia said 14,028 of its vehicles were affected.
Both brands have launched websites for customers to check if their vehicles are affected. But Volkswagen drivers have been told to take no action until a technical solution is made available by the company’s head office in Germany.
The NRMA criticised the carmaker’s response to the crisis locally, as confirmation of Australia’s inclusion in the global scandal came more than a fortnight after the news broke.
“It shouldn’t have taken this long for VW to communicate that into Australia and even now we don’t have enough info about what the recall will involve,” a spokesman, Peter Khoury, said on Thursday.
“I think that it’s further evidence that we need to get tougher regulations in Australia because we currently have a situation which basically enables car manufacturers to decide when and how they’ll do the recall, and it’s not working.”
Fletcher said the government expected Audi and Volkswagen to continue to work with it to deal with the matter.
Last week Volkswagen announced plans to recall and refit up to 11m affected vehicles worldwide.
Khoury said he understood customers would be alarmed and angry about the deception and the impact on the resale value of their vehicles. “People don’t want cars that would be polluting the environment, that are going to be spewing out more emissions than they should,” he said.
“Now, unfortunately in this case we’ve got a car that’s lying to its owner, that’s telling its owner that it is emitting less carbon monoxide than it is, and also affecting the fuel efficiency.”
He called for more powers to be given to the federal government to step in rather than leaving the recall to the manufacturer. “It is fundamental through this process now that the consumer be put first and that’s both through the recall stage and whatever compensation process may have to be put into place here because people were duped,” he said.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
