Mercedes customers achieved a partial success on Thursday when the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court established that unauthorized defeat devices were installed in certain diesel vehicles from the German car manufacturer.
The finding appeared in a so-called model declaratory judgement announced by the presiding judge, Thilo Rebmann, in the south-western German city, where Mercedes is headquartered.
This means that the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) has partially prevailed with a lawsuit that it filed against Mercedes-Benz in the wake of the diesel scandal.
The consumer protection organization called on Mercedes to take responsibility for the defeat devices. "The court has confirmed the opinion of the vzbv," said Ronny Jahn, team leader responsible for class actions. Important steps have now been taken for claims for damages, he added.
Following the judgement, the car manufacturer announced its intention to appeal to the Federal Court of Justice. "We take a different legal view to the court," said a spokesman.
The interpretation of Germany's complex regulations regarding emissions was at least justifiable at the time and was not done with the intention of acting unlawfully, he said, adding that the claims are still considered unfounded.
Mercedes has had to deal with emissions allegations for years.
In 2018 and 2019, the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) issued recall notices against several hundred thousand of the manufacturer's vehicles. According to the KBA, unauthorized defeat devices were installed in these vehicles, which restricted the purification of exhaust gases. Mercedes denies the allegations and is taking legal action against the notices.
In the test case, the consumer advocates focused on various off-road vehicle models with a specific engine type and the Euro 5 and 6 emissions standards. They were built between 2012 and 2016 and were affected by the KBA notices.
The court categorized both a feature influencing the AdBlue injection system in Euro 6 vehicles as well as the coolant setpoint temperature control (KSR) in Euro 5 vehicles as impermissible defeat devices.
AdBlue is a liquid used to reduce the amount of air pollution created by a diesel engine. The feature had ensured that the emission control system was no longer as effective on longer journeys, according to the court.
With KSR, on the other hand, the delayed heating of the engine oil leads to lower emissions of pollutants. The accusation here is that the technology works almost exclusively on the test bench.
However, the court rejected the consumer protection organization's accusation that members of the board of management of the then Daimler AG had ordered or approved the use of the defeat devices. It had been a case of a "blue sky lecture". According to the judges, the association did not provide any factual evidence for the allegations.
In the case of the Euro 6 vehicles, however, the court found that Mercedes employees had "at least condoned the fact that ... an unauthorized defeat device was involved." In the case of vehicles with the Euro 5 emissions standard, the court did not see any intentional behaviour.
Depending on the model, consumers could now be entitled to either a complete cancellation of the purchase contract or a kind of "small compensation." In the latter case, they could receive lump-sum compensation for their car in the amount of the loss in value that they have suffered as a result of the defeat devices installed.
Exactly how many car owners could benefit from the judgement was initially unclear.
According to vzbv, more than 2,800 people had joined the model case. However, they will need patience and will only be able to assert claims if the judgement in the Federal Court of Justice stands and becomes legally binding. They will then have to do this themselves.
The consumer advocates filed for the model declaratory judgement almost two and a half years ago. The proceedings began in July 2022 but were postponed several times.
Mercedes-Benz has had to go to court again and again since the KBA notices became known. In 2019, the group was fined €870 million ($940 million) for the diesel-related offences.
There have also been multimillion-euro settlements abroad and several penalty orders against Mercedes employees.
According to the court in Stuttgart, around 13,000 individual consumer diesel cases are still pending against the car manufacturer.
In addition, a second test case is still ongoing, which was sought by investors. They accuse Mercedes of not informing them about the scandal in good time - and are demanding hundreds of millions of euros in damages. The proceedings are due to continue in the summer.
