The Japan Times - Toyota Motor Corp. says it has agreed to settle a lawsuit with U.S. investors over massive recalls of its vehicles from late 2009 to 2010 due to acceleration problems that caused its shares to plummet.
The automaker will pay $25.5 million (about ¥2 billion) to settle the class-action lawsuit, according to U.S. media reports Wednesday.
Toyota said it doesn't acknowledge responsibility over defects and the fall in share prices but decided to settle the suit now instead of seeing the litigation drag on and possibly costing the firm more.
The investors argued the automaker failed to disclose information about the unintended acceleration of its vehicles even though Toyota executives were aware of the defects before the massive recalls, which led its shares to slide about 20 percent within a week.
