Venue Selected in Federal Volkswagen Emissions Litigation

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On December 8, 2015, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation designated the Northern District of California as the venue for the Volkswagen A.G. emissions litigation. Judge Charles Breyer will preside.

The litigation is made up of more than 500 class actions originally filed in 60 different federal courts. The plaintiffs in the actions allege that Volkswagen intentionally deceived consumers by advertising its vehicles as clean diesel cars, while in reality the vehicles emitted as much as 40 times the U.S. standard for nitrogen oxides. Volkswagen has admitted that around 11 million of its vehicles contained a ‘defeat’ device designed to throw off emissions tests.

Attorneys for both the plaintiffs and Volkswagen desired the federal cases to be transferred to Michigan or Virginia. Plaintiffs also indicated that they would be content with New Jersey or Tennessee as forums. Nevertheless, the JPML determined that the Northern District of California was the appropriate venue for the litigation because one-fifth of the Volkswagen cases have been filed in California (with 30 in the Northern District). The MDL Panel further resolved that the venue was suitable due to Judge Breyer’s extensive experience managing multidistrict litigations. Judge Breyer, who is the brother of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, is currently presiding over a multidistrict litigation concerning price fixing with several of the world’s largest airlines.

The case is: In Re: Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices, And Products Liability Litigation; MDL No: 2672.

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