Volkswagen

The High Court has rejected Volkswagen’s special leave application to challenge a record $125 million penalty for selling cars with a defeat device that allowed them to cheat on emissions tests.

The lead applicant in a class action against Volkswagen over defective Takata airbags has been hit with indemnity costs for his failed case after a NSW Supreme Court judge found that deficiencies in aspects of the case were “manifestly clear”.

The applicant in a class action against Volkswagen over defective Takata airbags has appealed a ruling dismissing the case for failing to establish any loss or damage.

Volkswagen has asked the High Court to throw out a a landmark $125 million penalty over its emissions cheating scandal, the highest ever handed down in Australia for consumer law violations.

A class action trial against Volkswagen over recalled Takata airbags has kicked off, with a lawyer for the car giant denying the airbags carried a safety risk and attacking as “quite absurd” the sought-after damages of 30 percent of the initial price tag of affected cars.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has settled its responsible lending case against Volkswagen’s financial services unit with an undertaking from the car financier to repay customers $4.7 million.

An appeals court has been urged to uphold a judge’s $125 million penalty against Volkswagen in the ACCC’s case over the car maker’s emissions cheating, with a court-appointed contradictor saying the judge was “starved” of the information he required to assess whether a $75 million agreement brokered by the consumer watchdog was reasonable.

The settlement arrangement resolving five class actions against Volkswagen, which carved out hefty legal fees from the $120 million payout to drivers, could become more prevalent as the spotlight is once again trained on the cost of class actions. But the approach is not without controversy, experts say.

A court has granted a request from Grosvenor Litigation Services, the funder that backed two class actions against Volkswagen over its emissions cheating scandal, to suppress the details of a co-funding agreement with Vannin Capital.

A judge has found that the High Court’s landmark ruling last year blocking common fund orders in the early stages of a class action also barred them from being made at the conclusion of a proceeding, departing from several recent rulings on common fund orders.