By Olivia Bugault

German law firm TILP said Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of institutional investors against Daimler AG (DAI.XE) to claim roughly 900 million euros ($1 billion) in damages related to the diesel-emissions scandal.

The suit have been filed on Dec. 30 with the regional court of Stuttgart by 219 investors including banks, pension funds and insurance companies, claiming that the German car maker has violated its duties.

"In particular, they allege that Daimler deliberately concealed the use of illegal defeat devices in the Diesel vehicles manufactured by the company, failed to disclose the risks and costs that this entailed, and misrepresented the actual circumstances to the capital markets," the law firm said.

The investors--who bought shares in Daimler between July 2012 and June 2018-- suffered damages as the company was spreading disinformation during this period, TILP said.

Daimler said in a statement that it had no knowledge of TILP's action and that "we believe the lawsuits we know of to be without merit and will defend ourselves against the accusations by all legal means."

Daimler has been at the center of a diesel-emissions scandal that started more than four years ago and was fined EUR870 million in September by prosecutors in Germany.

Write to Olivia Bugault at olivia.bugault@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 07, 2020 08:44 ET (13:44 GMT)