CJEU in C-100/21 (Mercedes-Benz group): technical rules on motor vehicles and emissions are also aimed at consumer protection

Dear readers, 
 
this week, the CJEU has decided a case that may go unnoticed among consumer lawyers scouting the CVRIA website for new cases but has a clear connection to consumer law - namely, C-100/21 (Mercedes-Benz Group)  concerning the liability of a producer of "defeat" vehicles. 
We know, of course, the background to this case - namely, the so-called "Dieselgate", revealing how several car producers had tweaked their vehicles to cheat on emissions tests. Quite a few court cases have previously reached the CJEU, lastly based on the Consumer Sales Directive. This case is similar to its predecessors qua facts, but also different in terms of the legal basis. 
In Mercedes-Benz, in fact, the basis for the consumer's claim was to be found in German tort law (para 823(2) BGB), which provides for recourse in tort by individuals when a law aiming to protect them has been infringed (see para 29). The question that the CJEU had to ask, then, was whether two European instruments read together - namely Directive 2007/46 establishing a framework for the approval of motor vehicles (‘the Framework Directive’), and Regulation No 715/2007 regulating the approval of certain auto vehicles - had to be interpreted as aiming to protect individual buyers of auto vehicles. According to the referring court, the question was a matter of doctrinal contention under German law, with some considering such technical instruments as merely aiming to protect the environment and secure road safety, while others emphasised the function of technical standards in securing consumer autonomy and individual interests (see paras 29-30 and ff.
According to the Court, it is the case that the European rules under consideration in fact (also) aim to protect individual consumers: that this is the case, the Court argues (para 78 ff), can be evinced from the fact that the Framework Directive requires manufacturers to provide individual purchasers with a certificate declaring that the purchased vehicle complies with the requirements set out in law. Buyers of auto vehicles carrying a conformity certificate can thus expect the acquired vehicles to comply with the relevant regulations. Failure to comply is "liable, inter alia, to create uncertainty as to the possibility of registering, selling or entering into service that vehicle and, ultimately, to harm the purchaser of a vehicle equipped with an unlawful defeat device" - all of which obviously directly affect the cars' individual purchasers. 
Member States, hence, are required to make sure that individual consumers have recourse against the producer of a defeat vehicle, where it is proven in national proceedings that the vehicle indeed contained a "defeat" mechanism. The rules applicable to actions seeking to obtain compensation for the damage suffered by individual consumers, however, are not harmonised; it is up to the Member States, subject to compliance with the principles of equivalence and effectiveness, to determine the exact contours of the claims. In this context, national courts are asked to assess the facts of the case - in which context, while tasked with securing the effectiveness of consumer's right to compensation for any damages suffered, they are also allowed to consider principles such as unjustified enrichment that would allow for balancing such damages against possible benefits enjoyed thanks to using the vehicle (paras 91-93). 
Given previous cases, the outcome in this case is perhaps not too surprising; it goes, however, to show further ways in which national private law systems and EU rules gradually come into more direct conversations, also where one would not immediately expect it. Furthermore, the case may be of interest to students and teachers of comparative tort law, always looking for current examples to illustrate this specific German doctrine :).