Court To Mercedes Benz: Pay Man 1.78 Crore For 'Manufacturing Defect' In Electric S-Class
Consumers facing issues with products that they have bought with their hard-earned money have started approaching consumer courts. We have come across several instances in the last couple of years where customers who bought cars with manufacturing defects had approached court requesting compensation. Here we have another case where a Mercedes-Benz customer approached a consumer court over issues in his brand-new EQS580 EV. The court has now asked Mercedes-Benz to pay compensation of Rs 1.78 crore for selling a car with a manufacturing defect to a customer.
The customer, Gurvinder Khurana, Director of Samran Media Consultants Pvt. Ltd., had bought a brand-new EQS 580 luxury electric sedan back in November 2022. He had paid around Rs 1.55 crore for the car back then. According to the customer, problems started surfacing on his brand-new car soon after the purchase.
The car had just run for around 9,000 km when a bulge appeared on the rear tyre. Similarly, the car’s radar failed to work, and the sensors on the car started malfunctioning. A humming noise from the AC blower was also heard. The car even stopped in the middle of trips multiple times. Apart from all these issues, the battery pack on this new electric car had also failed within 6 months and had to be replaced. The customer did take the car to the authorised service centre on multiple occasions. Despite this, the issues persisted.
It was after this that the customer decided to approach the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. The customer presented all the above-mentioned points to the court while filing the complaint. The commission looked into the matter and, based on the findings, ruled in favour of the customer.
The consumer court in its ruling dated September 12, 2025, said, “It is pertinent to mention that although the car was brand new, within six months of purchase, its battery pack had to be replaced. This raises concerns about the presence of a manufacturing defect. The persistence of such defects can reasonably be attributed to faults existing at the time of manufacture, as minor defects can easily be diagnosed and rectified and would not require numerous visits to the workshop.”
Mercedes-Benz argued in court that the complainant was not actually a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 as the car had been purchased for commercial purposes. They also submitted that the Commission lacked territorial jurisdiction to entertain the complaint and that no expert evidence had been provided by the complainant to prove a manufacturing defect.
The commission, comprising Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal and Pinki, rejected these submissions. The court said, “The important issue before us is how the complainant is to be compensated, given that Opposite Party No.1 has already withdrawn the model of the car in question, namely the Mercedes-Benz EQS580, from the Indian market. In these circumstances, we are left with no other alternative but to direct a refund of the entire purchase price of the said vehicle to the complainant.”
The Commission ordered a refund of the complete cost of the car, insurance and road tax, which is around Rs 3.1 lakh; tax collected at source, Rs 1.55 lakh; and interest on the loan amount of Rs 1 crore that the customer took for a period of 60 months, which is Rs 16 lakh. Apart from this, the court also asked Mercedes-Benz to pay Rs 5 lakh for the mental agony the customer faced and Rs 50,000 towards litigation charges.