The Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) Tony Rackauckas has filed a civil lawsuit against General Motors “for endangering motorists and the public by intentionally concealing serious safety defects in GM vehicles to avoid the cost of a recall or replacing defective parts”.
The complaint, filed on 27 June, states that GM “endangered the public through deception regarding vehicle safety and reliability and gained advantage over its competitors by engaging in unfair business practices”.
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In a statement, the OCDA said GM was accused of failing to disclose and/or concealing known defects in millions of its vehicles. The safety defects include power steering, airbag, and brake-related problems.
“By knowingly hiding the existence of defects and marketing their vehicles as safe and reliable, the OCDA is charging that GM enticed consumers under false pretences to purchase GM vehicles, the statement said.
“GM is charged with continuing to sell and lease its vehicles while knowingly concealing and suppressing information about the defects from California consumers. The complaint charges GM with valuing cost-cutting over safety, and intentionally falsely represented to the public that GM-manufactured vehicles were safe and reliable, despite its knowledge of the defects, to avoid the cost and negative attention of a recall.”
“The complaint states that, as a result of the defective vehicles and failure by GM to disclose defects to consumers prior to lease or purchase, victims have been injured and killed, owners and lessees of GM vehicles have suffered property damage, economic damage, and many are unable to sell or trade their cars.
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By GlobalDataFurther: “GM is accused of engaging in fraudulent, unfair and unlawful business practices, which put an emphasis on profits over safety. To avoid the attention of regulators and cost of a recall, GM is accused of training its personnel to never use the words ‘defect’, ‘stall’ or other words suggesting that any GM-branded vehicles are defective. They are accused of routinely choosing the cheapest part supplier without regard for safety and discouraging employees from acting to address safety issues.”
The OCDA said that, under the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act and other consumer protection laws, when a manufacturer learns that a vehicle contains a safety defect, the manufacturer must promptly disclose the defect.
“Despite failure to adhere to the law for many years, GM was required to recall 17m vehicles in 33 recalls covering various defects during the five months of 2014.
“GM is accused of deceptive practices that gave the company an unfair advantage over their competitors, who did not engage in such practices.”
Rackauckas said: “This case is about having safe cars on the road, because cars carry our most precious cargo. Orange County citizens rely on safe cars to transport and meet their families and friends, and get to work. Each driver of the road should be able to expect that the other cars on the road are safe and will not cause a harmful, preventable accident.
“Our cars are the most expensive purchases we make, aside from our homes. If a consumer finds out after purchase that their car is defective, then the resale value is diminished and the consumer loses money on their investment. We must protect our consumers from businesses that put profits over people.”
“We must encourage all businesses to be fair and live up to safety standards, and must not allow those engaging in unfair practices to punish those businesses that don’t cut corners by compromising safety.”
The OCDA has also filed a complaint for violations of the California’s unfair competition law and the false advertising law.
The DA noted that civil actions under these laws may be brought in the name of the people of the state of California by the DA as they “are the basic tools of the Attorney General and the district attorneys in combating consumer fraud.”
