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TfL seeks up to £1bn from carmakers over Ulez diesel compliance
The claim targets allegations of fraud and negligence tied to diesel vehicles that lawyers say entered London’s Ulez without paying the £12.50 daily charge.
Transport for London is pursuing a potential legal claim worth up to £1 billion against car manufacturers over whether certain diesel vehicles were allowed into the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone without paying the daily charge. The case is being heard in the high court and stems from TfL’s argument that polluting vehicles should have been subject to a levy.
In court, TfL said it is alleging fraud and negligence involving manufacturers including Stellantis, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and Nissan, related to diesel emissions levels. TfL’s position is that vehicles that should have paid a charge instead entered the Ulez without payment, which it says deprived the agency of revenue and undermined air quality efforts.
The action was launched in 2024 but paused while parallel “dieselgate” litigation played out. That earlier case sought to establish that carmakers designed vehicles to mask nitrogen oxide, or NOx, pollution, though TfL’s lawyers now face a recent verdict that largely rejected those allegations and is still under consideration for appeal.
The dispute has also been shaped by a separate high court ruling earlier this month, which rejected most allegations in the “dieselgate” track. In this week’s procedural hearing, reported by the Financial Times, TfL lawyers argued manufacturers “expressly or impliedly represented” certain diesel vehicles as compliant, and TfL is seeking damages said to be up to £1 billion.