Environmental organisation sues German government: Authorities to take action against motor homes with illegal defeat devices

The German environmental organisation "Deutsche Umwelthilfe" has filed a lawsuit against the German Federal Motor Transport Authority. The environmental organisation wants the German authority to remove illegal defeat devices in motorhomes with the engine of the car manufacturer Fiat (180 Multijet). Most motorhome manufacturers have had this engine installed in their vehicles.

The fact that these engines contain illegal defeat devices was already communicated to the German authorities by the environmental organisation during test measurements in 2021. The German public prosecutor's office has also been investigating this since summer 2020. The defeat device works in such a way that a timer switches off the exhaust gas purification system after 21 minutes and the system then only works within a thermal window, i.e. only within a temperature range of 20°C - 30°C. Such thermal windows are not permitted under the law. Such thermal windows are illegal according to ECJ case law.

However, since the German authorities have not been taking any action for two years, the environmental organisation has now filed a complaint in Germany. It wants the Federal Motor Transport Authority to take action and recall these engines because of illegal defeat devices. And this even if the road approval for these vehicles has been issued in a country. Since a technical retrofit is usually not possible in most cases, the vehicles are threatened with decommissioning in the worst case.

The lawsuit filed is another defeat for the car industry in Europe in 2022, since there is already a lot of pressure coming from the European level on the industry to compensate affected buyers. For example, the ECJ has just ruled that Deutsche Umwelthilfe, as an environmental organisation in Germany, is allowed to sue against the software updates approved by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, calling the updates illegal defeat devices. The software updates were applied to the vehicles after the scandal came to light in order to allegedly fix the exhaust gas purification system. In addition, further legal proceedings are pending which are intended to facilitate the legal prosecution of claims for damages by affected buyers.

You can check here whether you also have an affected vehicle.

You can also use our claim calculator to find out approximately how much compensation you are entitled to.