You know how lawsuits go, and how lawyers conveniently seem to show up at the worst time. When they smell blood, they will circle, and they will feast. This time it’s Volkswagen’s blood that has them circling and the first of what is sure to be many lawsuits has now officially been witnessed in the wild. An Irish law firm has filed a major lawsuit versus the car manufacturing giant. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 18 Volkswagen owners and totals millions of euro in potential recompense plus damages.
This case is an offshoot of the very public international scandal known as ‘Dieselgate‘. Apparently (allegedly) the situation caused some kind of damages to these owners, or at the very least, they are asking for punitive financial measures to be levied against the company due to the ‘deceit’ experienced by its buyers. It is difficult to imagine any significant economic impact or damage could be caused by emissions that exceeded what was advertised, intentional or not. Despite the comedic stretch implied by the damages, there is more ground on which the litigants hope to make Volkswagen take the vehicles back and refund the price paid by each buyer. It is based on the notion that there was no effective contract between the buyer and the company based on the emission claims.
In all, about 115,000 Volkswagens, Audis, Skodas and SEATs sold in Ireland were affected by the scandal. That makes the potential for costs for Volkswagen pretty heavy if this case proves to be a forecast for all others.
The fact of the matter is that whether the cars spewed out a few more invisible fumes than buyers thought, because of the scandal, the cars are probably tainted. On the resale market, the prices for these vehicles will probably suffer and this may be the best recourse for buyers that were snubbed.
