SAN FRANCISCO – A California man alleges he was deceived into buying a vehicle he believed was fuel efficient and has filed a class action.
Ernest Alvarez filed a complaint on behalf of individually and a class of similarly situated individuals on Dec. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Audi AG and Audi of America alleging violation of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act and other counts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that he suffered monetary damages from his decision to purchase an Audi A8 vehicle from the defendant, which it represented to have low emissions and provide excellent fuel efficiency to lure purchasers. However, the suit states those representations have been proven false as the California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently disclosed that defendant installs software into their vehicles called defeat devices, which can detect whether the vehicle is undergoing a required emission testing by altering the shift pattern to decrease carbon and nitric oxide output.
The plaintiffs hold Audi AG and Audi of America responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to disclose material facts about the vehicles, and failed to disclose the defeat device and its intended purpose and consequences to plaintiff and class members.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seek judgment against defendants, restitution, certify proposed class and sub-class, designate plaintiff as representative and counsel as class counsel, remove the defeat devices in the vehicles, option for full refund, disgorgement of the ill-gotten profits, attorneys’ fees and costs, interest, and other relief as may be appropriate.
He is represented by Lionel Z. Glancy, Marc L. Godino, Mark S. Greenstone and Kara M. Wolke of Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP in Los Angeles and Rosemary M. Rivas of Finkelstein Thompson LLP in San Francisco.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Case number 3:16-cv-06951