Closing submissions in the Pan-NOx emissions litigation, which are expected to last three weeks, began today before Lady Justice Cockerill.

The multi-billion collective action in the Pan-NOx group litigation case has already heard 10 weeks of evidence. The judge, sitting as a judge of the High Court, is expected to reserve her judgment following closing submissions.

The trial asks that she determine whether 20 sample diesel vehicles produced from 2012-17 by five car manufacturers were fitted with prohibited 'defeat devices' to mislead emissions test. If they did, she will decide whether the presence of such devices gives rise to private law claims for breach of contract and breach of statutory duty. The car makers – Mercedes, Ford, Peugeot/Citroën, Renault and Nissan - deny any wrongdoing.

For the claimants, Tom de la Mare KC said the judge was ‘free to look at foreign judgments’ to help her make her decisions adding: ‘You are fully entitled to look at the material. It is up to you to decide whether it is relevant and helpful and what of the legal arguments it contains.’ He told the court there was a ‘compelling corpus of law on the issues for which we draw on foreign judgments all pointing in the same direction’.

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The claimants, represented by Pogust Goodhead and Leigh Day, argue in their written closing submissions, which run to over 700 pages including a glossary, that the ‘essential facts’ are as pleaded by the claimants.

‘Ultimately, despite various attempts at distraction, the essential facts are as the claimants pleaded. The devices work as [the claimants] have alleged. They do the job they were designed to. And they have the serious adverse effect on NOx emissions for which [the claimants] contend. So this remains a case which in large part will turn on questions of law, as complicated by Brexit.’

The claimants said ‘no…compelling reasons have been advanced’ by the defendants ‘not least because the [defendants’] alternative would be a narrow, technical concept of defeat devices’.

The case, which has been brought on behalf of more than 1.6 million vehicle owners, is one of the largest group actions to be heard in the English and Welsh courts. The claimants, in written submissions, described the case as ‘a fraud trial on engineering facts’.

The trial continues. The defendants are expected to begin their closing submissions later this week.