[JURIST] A group of 10,000 British motorists have filed a class action lawsuit [press release] seeking compensation following Volkswagen’s (VW) diesel emissions scandal. Damon Parker, the head litigator at Harcus Sinclair [firm website], the law firm handling the suit, claims that the affected vehicles release far more NOx emissions than VW has admitted to. Parker’s argument is centered on the belief that the motorists deserve compensation because they paid a premium for what they believed to be “clean diesel” vehicles. Although VW has paid damages to 535,000 US-based consumers, they have refused to do so in European countries. They cite differences in regulations as the basis for this decision and have only offered technical remedies to European consumers. This filing comes less than a week after a German firm filed a lawsuit seeking compensation [JURIST report] for damages related to the emissions scandal.

VW is facing legal difficulty around the world over the emissions scandal. South Korea announced in December that it plans to fine [JURIST report] VW over false advertising. In October a Spanish court ordered [JURIST report] Volkswagen to pay damages to a VW vehicle owner who purchased his car in 2011. A US judge approved [JURIST report] a $14.7 billion settlement in October between VW and the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the state of California and car owners who filed a class action lawsuit over the company’s emissions scandal. In September a German court said VW faces over USD $8.2 billion [JURIST report] in damage claims from investors. That same month, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued [JURIST report] VW and its local subsidiary for misleading customers. In August a district court in Germany ruled [JURIST report] that a collective complaint against VW may move forward. Like US-style class-action lawsuits, the collective complaint was launched on behalf of multiple investors who lost money following the diesel emissions cheating scandal. Last March the US FTC filed suit [JURIST report] against VW for false advertising.