Japanese automotive parts supplier, Takata Corp., has been sued in Canada in three different cases linked to faulty air bags.
Three plaintiffs in Windsor, Ontario, are looking for approximately 2.4 billion Canadian dollars ($1.9 billion) on behalf of owners of vehicles with Takata-made air bags, the company said to the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday.
The penalty amount will be hard to estimate, and the air bag supplier hasn't factored it into its current fiscal year's earnings forecast yet.
Nearly 25 million vehicles equipped with Takata air bags have been called back around the world since 2008, according to Reuters. Ten different automakers have called back 17 million cars and trucks in the U.S. alone because of the air bag problem.
At least six fatalities globally have been linked to Takata air bags so far.
Takata has been the subject of at least 70 lawsuits proposing class actions in the U.S. by people claiming losses in vehicle value.
The most recent suits were "spurred by a series of recalls of vehicles with Takata airbags," according to Bloomberg.
Automakers and regulators alike are looking into the air bag inflators that can deploy with too much force and spray occupants with metal shards.
Last week, Honda added more than 100,000 vehicles to a recall related to possible defective air bags made by Takata.
The expansion means a total of 5.5 million Honda and Acura vehicles are not covered from 2001 to 2011 model years over air bag concerns, the automaker said in documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In late February, NHTSA started fining Takata $14,000 per day for failing to cooperate fully in their investigation into faulty air bag inflators. As of last week the fines have grown to $393,000.
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