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Could you make a Dieselgate claim?

Emma Lunn
Written By:
Emma Lunn
Posted:
Updated:
17/06/2020

An estimated 500,000 Mercedes-Benz owners could each be eligible to claim compensation of up to £96,000.

Drivers who have owned or leased a Mercedes-Benz diesel car or van, first registered between 2008 and 2018, could be entitled to compensation.

Lawyers say some car owners may be eligible to claim back the full purchase price of their vehicle, estimated to be between £23,775 and £96,220, after Mercedes-Benz allegedly installed vehicles with emissions “cheat devices”. These devices masked the true amount of diesel emissions produced during pre-sale testing.

Consumer action law firm Your Lawyers says some owners who felt they were mis-led into buying polluting cars could be eligible to claim under CPUT (Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading) regulations.

This law allows a claimant to receive up to 100% of the purchase price of their vehicle in cases where a vehicle manufacturer has engaged in “very serious” prohibitive practices.

Mercedes claimants eligible for a 100% CPUT claim could be entitled to receive between £23,775 and £96,220 in compensation depending on the model of their vehicle, according to recent price data from Mercedes.

In a similar case in 2015, more than 1.2 million Volkswagen vehicles across England and Wales were alleged to contain “defeat device” technology.

Mercedes-Benz is accused of fitting affected vehicles with similar technology, designed to allow them to rig emissions testing and secure road safety approval under EU emissions laws. The use of a defeat device is illegal under EU law.

In Germany, Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler has been fined £776m, with 774,000 vehicles recalled across the country in 2018.

In the UK, some drivers have received letters from Mercedes-Benz recalling certain vehicles for software updates in what appears to be a thinly-veiled effort to repair the illegally polluting vehicles.

Aman Johal, director of Your Lawyers, said: “Our evidence shows that consumers who own or previously owned a Mercedes vehicle affected by the Dieselgate scandal could claim compensation pay-outs of up to £96,000.

“We urge Mercedes owners to come forward as soon as possible to claim compensation owed to them before it’s too late. Half a million drivers across the UK could be eligible to claim, and carmakers must be held to account where vehicles are found to be producing more dangerous levels of emissions that could lead to a greater number of deaths and cause irreparable damage to the environment.

“If Mercedes is found to have used defeat devices to cheat emissions regulations, owners deserve to be compensated, especially where residual values have been affected. Much like the Volkswagen case from 2015, we may be looking at another example of a big corporation putting profits before people.”