Volkswagen could face a barrage of legal claims from British car owners over the emissions tests scandal, according to top law firms.
Lawyers say they have been indundated with inquiries from VW drivers whose cars may have been far more polluting than claimed, after the German carmaker admitted installing defeat devices to cheat tests.
The chief executive of Volkswagen, Martin Winterkorn, quit on Wednesday, with the group facing criminal investigations in the US and other countries, plus potential legal claims worldwide, with 11m vehicles directly affected.
A spokesman for Leigh Day, a London-based law firm specialising in personal injury and product liability claims, said it had been inundated by inquiries. The number of potential claimants they were talking to would number “in the thousands - it’s constant enquirers at the moment”, he said.
Another law firm, Slater & Gordon, said it was fielding calls from concerned drivers. The firm’s head of group litigation, Jacqueline Young, said both owners and car dealerships would have viable legal claims for breach of contract, with the value of vehicles falsely boosted by VW’s misrepresentations. Shareholders might also have a case, Young said, after the 30% fall in its share price since the scandal erupted.
Young said a huge class-action lawsuit was possible: “If the Volkswagen scandal applies to cars in the UK then this has the potential to be one of the largest group action lawsuits this country has seen.”
The German transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, has now confirmed that Volkswagen vehicles containing software to fix emissions standards were also sold across Europe.
VW has put aside an initial €6.5bn (£4.8bn) to deal with the costs of the crisis, although that sum could be dwarfed by fines from US regulators. The carmaker has enlisted Kirkland & Ellis – the US law firm employed by BP in the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster – to deal with its mounting legal claims.
Concerns over true pollution levels have also spread to fuel consumption, with consumer group Which? having long reported discrepancies between official miles per gallon test figures and their own results, with the VW Golf the second-worst offender in their research.
Richard Lloyd, the Which? executive director, said: “Our research has consistently showed that the official test used by carmakers is seriously in need of updating as it contains a number of loopholes that lead to unrealistic performance claims.”
Pressure has grown on the UK government to follow up its call for a European commission inquiry, after it was revealed that the Department for Transport had been lobbying in private for less rigorous tests.
Environmental law organisation ClientEarth has written to the DfT demanding it take action to establish whether VW’s use of defeat devices was part of wider industry practice, and to release all information held on the real-world emissions performance of cars licensed for sale on UK roads.
James Thornton, CEO of ClientEarth, said: “Five days into the diesel emissions scandal the government has taken no action to reassure the public that cars on our roads meet even the lax standards required by EU law. The industry has shown it cannot be trusted. We cannot wait for action from the EU. First responsibility for protecting our health lies with our own government. The public must know the full scale of the problem and urgent action must be taken to fix it.”
The transport select committee is set to launch an inquiry into the scandal and its wider lessons for testing, which could see ministers and VW executives in Britain hauled before MPs. While an inquiry cannot be officially launched until parliament returns in October, Louise Ellmann, chair of the committee, said: “Action must be taken to give the public confidence in the testing regime in relation to emissions, safety, recyclability and other factors. There are questions over whether the testing authorities commissioned by motor manufacturers are truly independent.”
