The claims arise out a determination by the European Commission in 2016 which found that five major truck manufacturers – MAN, Volvo Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF – broke EU antitrust laws.

The truck makers, the Commission found, had colluded for 14 years on truck pricing and on passing on the costs of compliance with stricter emission rules to their customers.

The Commission’s investigators found the manufacturers had co-ordinated prices at a gross level for trucks in the EEA area and had passed on the costs of emission technologies required to comply with strict European emission standards to buyers.

Record fines totalling €2.93 billion were handed out to the companies, except for MAN as it had revealed the existence of the cartel to the commission.

As a result of the Commission’s findings, dozens of Irish hauliers, represented by Paul McGarry SC and solicitor Evan O’Dwyer, launched separate damages actions before the Irish High Court for alleged breach of Irish and EU competition laws.

The hauliers seek damages, including exemplary and punitive damages for negligence and breach of contract, from the truck manufacturers and various Irish-based dealerships that sold the vehicles, as well as compensation under the Competition Act.

More than 50 cases have been brought to date, but more are expected to be launched.

Those proceedings were stayed pending the outcome of a decision by the European Court of Justice on a preliminary point of law raised by similar actions brought before the Hungarian courts.

The ECJ was asked to clarify if domestic courts, such as the Irish High Court, have the ability to hear cases in which truck owners are maintaining claims for compensation.

The ECJ ruled in late July that hauliers’ claims for compensation can be brought before the domestic courts of member states, clearing the way for the Irish cases to proceed before the Irish High Court.

The cases were briefly mentioned on Friday morning before Mr Justice Max Barrett at the High Court, who deals with competition cases.

The judge set out a timetable for the exchange of documents in the case, and adjourned the matter to a date next February. It is likely that a date will be fixed for the hearing of the actions sometime in 2020.