Leigh Day is investigating a potential group claim against Volvo over an alleged ‘cheat device’ fitted on some of their cars in order to artificially reduce emissions to pass EU tests.

Monitoring shows that when the vehicles are driven on the road, they emit many times more levels of toxic NOx gases than under test conditions.

This is extremely damaging, as increased levels of NOx contribute to air pollution which is reported to be the largest environmental risk to UK public health and is linked to as many as 64,000 early deaths a year.

We believe that this software is unlawful under UK law and we are planning on bringing legal claims for compensation on behalf of consumers who purchased those vehicles that were affected.

The claims are being investigated on behalf of people who leased or owned Volvo diesel vehicles. The claims could be worth up to 75% of the purchase price of the vehicle for each owner.

If you bought or leased a diesel Volvo vehicle, your vehicle may be affected and you can apply to join the claim by clicking the “Join The Volvo Claim” button below.

Leigh Day are fighting for compensation on behalf of owners of Volvo vehicles who they believe were deliberately misled over the environmental performance of their vehicles.

This concerns Volvo’s use of an alleged ‘defeat device’ in some of their diesel cars, to artificially reduce NOx emissions to levels which pass regulatory tests.

In 2016 both German and UK regulators found that a number of Volvo vehicles were producing NOx emissions that were higher than the permitted levels.  

Leigh Day believe that the ‘defeat devices’ used in the vehicles are unlawful under UK law and consequently, there are potentially hundreds of thousands of unlawfully polluting vehicles still on the roads in the UK.

Leigh Day believe that owners of the affected vehicles should be compensated because they were mis-sold these vehicles, which were advertised as being more environmentally friendly with lower NOx emissions.

Increased levels of nitrogen dioxide emissions are harmful to the environment and to the health of children and adults.

This case is in its early stages but Leigh Day expect it to follow the trajectory of the other emissions cases, including VW and Mercedes.

Leigh Day intend to secure funding from commercial providers to ensure they have the resources available to instruct the best experts and barristers and to have a large enough legal team to ensure that our clients get the best service possible.

If you bought or leased a diesel Volvo vehicle, it is possible your vehicle may be affected. Please complete our online vehicle registration checker to see if your vehicle has potentially been affected.

You do not need to have any documents to start your claim with Leigh Day.

At some stage they will ask you to provide them with documents regarding the purchase of your vehicle including, for example, the contract of sale or other proof of purchase, finance agreement and/or lease agreement. If you have these documents, then please place them somewhere safe until Leigh Day request them. Do not worry if you no longer have these documents, Leigh Day will be in touch with details about how to request them.

Leigh Day will be bringing these claims on a ‘No Win-No Fee’ basis under a Damages-Based Agreement (DBA). This means that they will deduct up to 30% (exclusive of VAT and expenses) of the damages / compensation you receive (the “DBA Payment”) if the claim is successful. The DBA Payment represents Leigh Day’s fee for the work they undertake/incur in acting for you and sharing the financial risk in pursuing your claim on your behalf. At the current rate of VAT of 20% the total amount they will deduct from your damages is no more than 36%.

If you are successful in your claim Leigh Day will also deduct from your damages any expenses that they incur during the case such as court fees, travel costs and expert fees which will be in addition to the 30% (exclusive of VAT). However, Leigh Day will also seek to recover our time costs and expenses from the Defendant(s) so that it is highly likely that you will end up paying less than 30% (exclusive of VAT) overall.

If you do not win your case you do not have to pay us anything. 

We have provided a worked example below to illustrate how instructing Leigh Day under a DBA works where they are acting under a DBA on the same terms they are offering you in this case.

Client enters into DBA for 30% of damages + VAT + expenses. Client wins their case and receives £10,000 in compensation. Leigh Day also recover from the Defendant £2,000 towards our time costs and expenses

In the above example if the client receives £10,000 in damages / compensation once they have paid everything they owe to Leigh Day they will go home with £7,400. So although there is a DBA Payment of 30% (excluding VAT) because this amount is first taken from any costs recovered from the Defendant, the actual percentage taken from the client’s damages is 26% in total.

At this early stage, it is impossible for us to give an accurate prediction of timescale. As with any legal claim, there are some things within our control and some things outside our control. Much will depend on the Defendants’ response to the legal claim.

In our experience group claims of this type may take two to five years to progress through the Court, but it could take longer. As a client you will be provided with regular updates, particularly in relation to the timescale for next steps which can be predicted more accurately than for the case as a whole.

There are number of time limits applying to the claims we are bringing:

Deceit/misrepresentation and breach of statutory duty claims must be brought within 6  years of you discovering  (or  if  you  could  have discovered with reasonable diligence) that your vehicle had emissions test cheating software.

Breach of contract claims must be brought within 6 years of the breach of contract, which in this case is 6 years from the date of purchase.

CPUT claims must be brought within 6 years from the date of making the agreement to buy the vehicle.

Consumer Credit Act claims should be brought within 6 years of the first payment made under your Volvo finance agreement, although it may be possible to bring the claim after that date but only in respect of getting compensation for any payments made within 6 years or to be made in the future.

Yes. Affected vehicles which were leased or purchased from Motability are eligible to join the claims. 

There are a number of possible legal claims a vehicle owner could pursue in relation to their Volvo vehicle. It may be that, as a result of how you leased your vehicle, we only advise you to pursue some types of legal claim, and not others. If you have your Motability documents, please keep these somewhere safe until we request a copy.