Plaintiffs lawyers, many of whom filed lawsuits over the Takata airbag recalls, have brought more than a dozen class actions against another airbag manufacturer and several automakers, including Honda and Toyota.

The suits follow an April 19 announcement by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) expanding an existing investigation of ZF-TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.'s airbags, supplied to Hyundai Motor America and Kia Motors America Inc., to include automakers FCA US LLC (Fiat Chrysler), American Honda Motor Co. Inc., Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. and Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. Many of those automakers are defendants in the lawsuits, along with ZF-TRW, based in Germany, and have brought in outside counsel to address the litigation.

By some accounts, the cases mimic those against Takata, which paid $1 billion to resolve a criminal probe by the U.S. Justice Department before its North American unit, TK Holdings Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Six automakers, including Toyota and Honda, paid $1.5 billion to resolve class actions brought over Takata airbags.

In a motion filed on Friday before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, plaintiffs lawyer David Boies asked to send all the cases to the Southern District of Florida, where U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno oversaw the Takata lawsuits.

"In Takata, plaintiffs alleged nearly identical claims: that defective vehicle safety equipment was provided to vehicle manufacturers and installed in millions of vehicles; that defendants knew of the defect, which could lead to serious bodily injury or death; that defendants concealed this defect from the public while continuing to advertise their products as safe and reliable; and that defendants demonstrated a blatant disregard for public welfare and safety," wrote Boies, of Boies Schiller Flexner in Armonk, New York.

Many of the same plaintiffs lawyers are involved, such as Boies; Elizabeth Cabraser of San Francisco's Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein; and Peter Prieto of Miami's Podhurst Orseck, who was lead counsel in the Takata MDL.

Fiat Chrysler, named in five of the new cases, raised an argument in a Thursday motion against multidistrict litigation that many of the automakers did in Takata: they don't want to be lumped together with their competitors on a single docket.

"FCA US, Honda, Hyundai/Kia, Mitsubishi and Toyota are all direct business competitors who have devoted a tremendous amount of time and money to designing, testing and marketing their respective vehicles," wrote Thomas Azar, a partner at Thompson Coburn in St. Louis, in a filing on Wednesday. "Much of this work is highly confidential and proprietary."

Fiat Chrysler, he wrote, opposed such an "overbroad and unwieldy 'catch-all' MDL proceeding".

Fiat Chrysler spokesman Michael Palese declined to comment.

Other defence lawyers appearing in the cases are:

• Matthew Regan, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, for ZF-TRW
• Lance Etcheverry, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Palo Alto, California, for Hyundai and Kia
• Eric Mattson, of Sidley Austin in Chicago, for Honda
• Michael Mallow, of Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Los Angeles, for Toyota
• Douglas Robinson, of Palmieri, Tyler, Wiener, Wilhelm & Waldron in Irvine, California, for Mitsubishi.

None responded to requests for comment.

The lawsuits draw comparisons to Takata. They allege that ZF-TRW, and Hyundai and Kia, knew about the defect as early as 2011 because they were aware of crashes in which airbags failed. They also had been communicating with the NHTSA about the specific defect. Some cases allege that Hyundai and Kia engaged in a racketeering conspiracy with ZF-TRW to hide the problem from the public and the NHTSA.

The NHTSA began investigating in 2018.

But there are distinct differences – most glaringly, that automakers have not instituted a recall like that of Takata, which involved 42 million vehicles, the largest automotive recall in U.S. history. The NHTSA, in its April announcement, estimated that 12.3 million cars could have the defective ZF-TRW airbags but, so far, automakers Fiat Chrysler, Hyundai and Kia have recalled only 2.5 million cars. And none of those recalls involved vehicles in the class actions, according to the lawsuits.

Melissa Troutner, a partner at Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, called the cases "completely different" from Takata.

Her firm – along with Carella, Byrne, Cecchi, Olstein, Brody & Agnello; Robbins, Geller, Rudman & Dowd; and Seeger Weiss – brought the initial motion this month to coordinate the cases into multi-district litigation. But they suggested the venue should be the Central District of California, home to Hyundai and Kia, or, as an alternative, the Eastern District of Michigan, home to ZF-TRW's U.S. unit.

"The similarities end at some of the same defendants, and the fact that airbags are involved," she said. "This is a very different issue with regard to the airbag system."

In Takata, the airbags deployed when they should not have, causing at least 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries. But airbags made by ZF-TRW aren't deploying, the lawsuits say. That means that, although the lawsuits attribute six serious injuries and four deaths to the defect, the airbags themselves are not the cause – just contributors.

The lawsuits claim that a defective airbag control unit causes airbags not to deploy in the event of a crash, risking "serious injury or death". The units contain a circuit that monitors signals from crash sensors in the cars. But those circuits have failed under electrical overstress, according to the lawsuits.

The class actions claim consumers have lost money because their cars have diminished in value due to the defect.

So far, 14 class actions are pending – in California, Florida, Michigan, New York and Washington. But more could be on their way.

"It is likely that the number of related actions filed in the coming weeks, across multiple jurisdictions, will increase significantly," Boies wrote.