Toyota Class Action

High Court delivers judgment in the Toyota Class Action

A recent judgment of the High Court of Australia has set out the law as to how the Federal Court is to go about calculating the amount of money that eligible Group Members are entitled to receive in this class action. If you are interested, a copy of the High Court’s judgment is accessible here.

The legal position is that:

• Toyota Hilux, Prado and Fortuner vehicles with a 1GD-FTV or 2GD-FTV diesel engine acquired between 1 October 2015 and 23 April 2020 (Relevant Vehicles) were not of acceptable quality at the time they were initially supplied because they were fitted with a defective diesel particulate filter (DPF) system;
• Toyota engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct in connection with marketing and selling the Relevant Vehicles;
• the value of the Relevant Vehicles at the time they were initially supplied was reduced because of their defective DPF systems;
• in calculating the amount of money that eligible Group Members are entitled to be paid by Toyota for that reduction in value, it is necessary for the Federal Court to take into account the fact that, by the time of trial, an effective repair for the defect existed; and
• Group Members who have sold (or who sell) their Relevant Vehicle are not entitled to receive money for reduction in value under section 272(1)(a) of the Australian Consumer Law, although they may still be entitled to receive money to compensate them for other loss or damage they have suffered because of Toyota’s misleading or deceptive conduct and/or as a result of the Relevant Vehicle not being of acceptable quality. Accordingly, if you sell your Relevant Vehicle, you will lose any entitlement to receive money for reduction in value that you may otherwise have under section 272(1)(a) of the Australian Consumer Law.

The High Court has returned the matter to the Federal Court for the Court to calculate the amount of money that eligible Group Members are entitled to be paid by Toyota for the reduction in value of their Relevant Vehicles, taking into account the fact that, by the time of trial, an effective repair for the defect existed.  The steps which remain to be taken to determine Group Members’ claims in this class action are described below.

Correspondence from Toyota regarding DPF repairs

You may have received a letter from Toyota in around October 2024, inviting you to take your Relevant Vehicle to a Toyota Dealer to have the defective DPF system in the vehicle repaired.

You should be aware that if you take up Toyota’s invitation to have the DPF system in the vehicle repaired, Toyota will argue in this class action that you will lose any entitlement to be paid money for reduction in value under section 272(1)(a) of the Australian Consumer Law, something which Toyota did not include in its letter.

What happens next?

The Federal Court still needs to:

• calculate the amount of money that eligible Group Members are entitled to receive in this class action (taking into account the fact that, by the time of trial, an effective repair for the defect existed); and
• determine the consequences of Toyota’s DPF repair being applied to a Group Member’s Relevant Vehicle for the Group Member’s entitlement to receive money for reduction in value under section 272(1)(a) of the Australian Consumer Law.

The class action was listed for a case management hearing on 18 March 2025. An update in respect of the orders made at that case management hearing and the next steps in the proceeding can be accessed via the ‘Updates’ page of this website.

The class action has been listed for further case management on 8 September 2025. It is anticipated that at that hearing, orders will be made providing for steps to be taken to prepare the class action for a hearing at which the matters outlined above can be determined. A further update will be posted on the ‘Updates’ page of this website and on the Group Member Registration Portal following this hearing.