South Carolina AG secures nearly $150 million settlement with Mercedes Benz

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said Monday that he has secured a settlement from the American arm of the car company, Mercedes-Benz Group, that is worth just under $150 million.The lawsuit, led by South Carolina but which included 50 state attorneys general, accused the company of violating state laws prohibiting unfair or deceptive trade practices by marketing, selling, and leasing vehicles in the U.S. that were equipped with illegal and undisclosed devices designed to circumvent emissions standards.
“Today’s settlement is a win for South Carolina,” Wilson said in a statement. “This car manufacturer circumvented rules to meet its own goals while posing serious potential harm to our citizens.”
South Carolina itself will only receive just over $2 million from the settlement. The exact amount of the total settlement is $149,673,750, but only $120 million will go to the states. The other nearly $30 million will be suspended and potentially waived pending completion of a comprehensive consumer relief program.
The settlement comes after the states accused the company of supplying more than 211,000 diesel passenger cars and vans nationwide between 2008 and 2016 that were equipped with the devices. Approximately 1,820 of the impacted vehicles were sold or registered in South Carolina.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

Read Full Article: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/south-carolina-ag-secures-nearly-150-million-settlement-mercedes-benz-daimler?utm_source=justthenews.com&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=external-news-aggregators