A class action on behalf of Italian Citroën owners who were unable to use their cars due to dangerously faulty airbags has cleared its final hurdle, opening the way for consumers who bought their cars in Italy to claim compensation.
Last month, the Court of Appeal of Turin rejected the appeal against the action by the companies involved, which means around 170,000 affected owners can now join the action.
A hearing is scheduled for November 2025 to assess individual levels of compensation, but Euroconsumers Italian member Altroconsumo has estimated some could claim up to three thousand euros.
The rest of this blog tells the story so far of the faulty Takata airbags in Citroën cars, and calls on the manufacturers to quickly deliver redress to every affected consumer, regardless of which country they bought the car in.
In 2023, an urgent recall notice was issued to owners of two makes of Citroën, the Citroën C3 and Citroën DS3 warning that the front airbags could be defective.
A follow-up warning instructed drivers to immediately stop using the affected vehicles, as the defect was so severe that it posed a deadly risk.
They were told that the airbags, manufactured by the now-bankrupt Japanese company Takata, could explode when deployed potentially causing fatal or life-changing injuries. Faced with such a grave and frightening situation, concerned motorists rushed to arrange replacements.
But the process turned out to be anything but smooth. Consumers encountered numerous hurdles: difficulty securing appointments at authorised service centres, extended wait times for repairs, shortages of replacement parts, and technical issues with Citroën’s website for arranging the free replacement procedure.
In response, Altroconsumo issued a formal notice to PSA Group, Citroën’s parent company, demanding swift action. Yet despite promises of prompt intervention, the situation remained unresolved.
Affected drivers were left without their vehicles for weeks or even months, with no alternative transportation provided, no clear timeline for repairs and having to rent a replacement car.
More than 170,000 motorists were unable to quickly change their airbag and use their car due to the inefficiencies of the car manufacturer
In October 2024, Altroconsumo launched a class action against Stellantis NV and the PSA Italia SpA group, to secure compensation for the financial and non-financial damages suffered by those affected.
Altroconsumo has calculated compensation as:
• €1,500 for non-financial damages i.e distress caused by the safety risks, inconvenience and stress in sorting the issue.
• €17.24 per day for each day of delay in replacement, equal to the average cost of renting a small car, this would be up to €517.20 for each month.
With this model, a motorist who has waited three months could obtain over €3,000 in compensation. Under the Italian system, the precise amounts due to drivers would be calculated by a judge.
The latest development from the Italian courts is great news for consumers there, but Citroën C3 and DS3 owners elsewhere have yet to get the same redress.
This again shows the inconsistent nature of claims involving multinational manufacturers selling products to consumers across many different countries and legal systems.
Euroconsumers represents consumers across four different countries – Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal – who have all been directly affected by the same issues. They’ve experienced the same safety risks, inconvenience and financial losses due to the delays in handling recalls and replacements.
Euroconsumers’ legal team has written to Stellantis N.V as the relevant company for all four countries to ask them to do the right thing by consumers:
We hereby formally demand that Stellantis N.V. take immediate steps to provide fair and adequate compensation to all affected consumers within the Euroconsumers countries. This compensation should address the damages incurred due to the delayed recall and the disruption caused by the unavailability of their vehicles.
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