Mercedes-Benz to pay $5.5 million to settle Arizona diesel advert case

WASHINGTON — German automaker Mercedes-Benz and auto provider Robert Bosch LLC have agreed to pay a complete of about $6 million to resolve a lawsuit over diesel promoting claims, the U.S. state of Arizona mentioned on Friday.

Beneath the proposed settlement, Mercedes-Benz pays $2.8 million in client restitution, and every qualifying Arizona client will obtain as much as $625 per automobile, Arizona Legal professional Normal Mark Brnovich mentioned.

“Arizona calls for fact in promoting to help customers in making probably the most knowledgeable choices for themselves,” he mentioned.

Mercedes-Benz, which denied the allegations and made no admissions, can even pay $2.7 million in penalties, and Robert Bosch LLC, which additionally mentioned it had not admitted legal responsibility or wrongdoing, pays $525,000 in penalties, Arizona mentioned.

“With the settlement, the corporate takes one other step towards decision of varied diesel proceedings… and avoids additional prices of litigation and prolonged court docket actions,” Mercedes Benz mentioned in an announcement.

Bosch confirmed the settlement associated to the engine management items for sure Mercedes diesel autos.

In 2020, Mercedes-Benz agreed to pay $2.2 billion to resolve a U.S. authorities diesel emissions dishonest investigation and claims from 250,000 U.S. automobile house owners.

The settlement included an $875 million civil penalty levied below the Clear Air Act and $546 million to repair the polluting autos and offset extra emissions.

A Justice Division investigation into the Mercedes emissions challenge stays open and plenty of U.S. states have ongoing environmental and client safety investigations, the corporate mentioned in its annual report in March.

Mercedes-Benz, then generally known as Daimler AG, agreed in 2020 to pay 250,000 house owners as much as $3,290 every to get polluting autos repaired.

Diesel autos have come below harsh scrutiny in the US since Volkswagen AG admitted in 2015 to putting in secret dishonest software program on 580,000 U.S. autos.

VW paid greater than $30 billion to resolve investigations and purchase again autos.

Earlier this month, Bosch agreed to pay $25 million to resolve California’s probe into its function within the diesel emissions scandals at Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler Vehicles.

In August, the U.S. enterprise of Fiat Chrysler, now a part of Stellantis, was sentenced after pleading responsible to felony conspiracy and paid almost $300 million to resolve a multi-year U.S. Justice Division diesel-emissions fraud probe.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Modifying by Mark Porter, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Alexander Smith)

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