Williams v Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited

Damages – Assessment – Consumer law – Where Mr Williams and Direct Claim Services Qld Pty Ltd ("Williams parties") brought representative proceedings against Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited ("Toyota") on behalf of persons who acquired motor vehicles fitted with defective diesel exhaust after-treatment system – Where vehicles had propensity to experience defect consequences – Where effective fix became available in May 2020 free of charge ("repair") – Where primary judge concluded vehicles did not comply with guarantee of "acceptable quality" in s 54(1) of Australian Consumer Law ("ACL") at time of supply – Where s 271(1) of ACL provides that if guarantee under s 54 is not complied with, "an affected person in relation to the goods may ... recover damages from the manufacturer" – Where s 272(1)(a) of ACL provides that "an affected person in relation to goods is entitled to recover damages for ... any reduction in the value of the goods, resulting from the failure to comply with the guarantee to which the action relates" – Where primary judge held assessment of damages under s 272(1)(a) to be made at time of supply and information acquired thereafter could only be considered if it bore upon "true value" at time of supply, which did not include knowledge of availability of repair – Where Full Court of Federal Court of Australia held that assessment of damages under s 272(1)(a) may require departure from time of supply or adjustment to avoid "over compensation" – Where Full Court held that availability and timing of repair should be considered – Whether Full Court erred in permitting an assessment of damages after time of supply rather than only using information acquired thereafter to confirm what could be foreseen at time of supply – Whether Full Court erred in failing to conclude that damages under s 272(1)(a) are recoverable where there is no ongoing reduction in value at time of trial due to availability of repair.

Words and phrases – "affected person in relation to goods", "assessment of damages", "availability of a repair", "compensation", "consumer", "damages", "defect", "defect consequences", "full knowledge of the defect", "guarantee of acceptable quality", "hypothetical reasonable consumer", "inherent features of the defect", "loss-based damages", "loss or damage", "performance-based damages", "reduction in value", "state and condition of the goods", "time of supply", "time of trial".

Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) – Sch 2 (Australian Consumer Law), ss 54(1), 271(1), 272(1)(a), 272(1)(b).