Fisker Class Action Lawsuit: Shareholder Case and Ocean Owner Claims

Two class action tracks are moving against Fisker Inc. The first is a securities class action, Zahabi v. Fisker Inc., filed in November 2023 in the Central District of California on behalf of shareholders who bought Fisker stock between August 4 and November 20, 2023.¹ The second is a wave of consumer claims from Fisker Ocean owners, now numbering roughly 1,300 individual arbitrations, most of them aimed not at Fisker itself but at JPMorgan Chase Bank, the auto lender that financed the cars.² Fisker’s June 2024 Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the reason the owner claims have pivoted to third parties: unsecured creditors of the estate are recovering less than a penny on the dollar.

The Shareholder Case: Zahabi v. Fisker Inc.

Mohamed A. Zahabi filed the securities class action on November 27, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, case number 2:23-cv-09976. The defendants are Fisker Inc., co-founders Henrik Fisker and Geeta Gupta-Fisker, and former chief accounting officer John Finnucan. The complaint alleges violations of the Securities Exchange Act during a class period running from August 4, 2023 through November 20, 2023.¹

According to the complaint, Fisker made materially misleading statements or omissions on four fronts during that window: that it had a material weakness in its internal controls over financial reporting, that it had incorrectly accounted for certain costs, that it was likely to delay filing its quarterly report, and that its infrastructure was limiting its ability to deliver vehicles.³ The claim, in short, is that Fisker’s public optimism about the business lacked a reasonable basis.

The stock reacted in a series of steps as the problems came out. On November 8, 2023, shares dropped roughly 8.7% to close at $3.99. After Fisker reported a $91 million quarterly loss and cut its production forecast on November 13, the stock fell another 18.7% to $3.34 on November 14. When Fisker disclosed the chief accounting officer’s departure on November 20, shares fell another 15% to $2.00.³ By mid-November 2023, the stock was down about 65% for the year.⁴

Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha is presiding. The current lead plaintiff is John A. Douglas, acting as trustee. New counsel appeared for Henrik Fisker and Geeta Gupta-Fisker in June 2026, and a motion to add a second named plaintiff was filed on June 18, 2026, with a hearing set for July 17, 2026.⁵ A motion to dismiss was briefed in late 2024, but no ruling on it appears on the public docket.¹ Shareholders who bought during the class period are the proposed class; if the court certifies the class, eligible investors would receive notice with instructions on participating or opting out.

Fisker Ocean Owner Claims

By August 2024, more than 800 owners of 2023 and 2024 Fisker Oceans had retained the automotive litigation firm Hagens Berman.⁶ The number of individual arbitration cases has since grown to roughly 1,300, and most of them target JPMorgan Chase Bank, which served as the primary auto loan provider for vehicles financed through Fisker Finance.²

The reason for going after the lender rather than the manufacturer is the FTC’s Holder Rule. Under federal regulations, a financing entity that holds a consumer credit contract can be liable to the consumer for claims the buyer would otherwise have against the seller. With Fisker in bankruptcy and effectively judgment-proof, the lender became the only defendant with money to pay refunds or cancel loans.⁷

The underlying vehicle complaints are substantial. Owners have reported doors that lock passengers inside, software glitches that cause the car to suddenly shift into park while driving, unexpected loss of power, and failures in braking. Owners also allege Fisker stopped responding to communications about repairs and open recalls, and that the company used aggressive sales tactics and low-interest financing to move inventory in the weeks before bankruptcy without warning buyers about its financial condition.⁸

Because these are individual arbitrations rather than a certified class action, each owner’s case moves on its own track. Owners who financed through Fisker Finance and want to explore a claim would contact firms that have taken on this litigation.

Why Suing Fisker Directly Doesn’t Recover Much

Fisker Inc. and its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on June 17 and June 19, 2024. The filing was structured for orderly liquidation, not reorganization.⁹ Judge Thomas M. Horan confirmed the liquidation plan on October 11, 2024, and it took effect on October 17, 2024.¹⁰

The recovery numbers explain why owners have looked elsewhere. Through the end of June 2025, no distributions had been made to unsecured creditors. The liquidating trust later declared an interim distribution of $8.8 million to holders of allowed general unsecured claims, a recovery rate of 0.75 cents on the dollar.¹¹ Owners who filed as unsecured creditors face the same math.

Recalls, Repairs, and the June 2026 Deadline

Owners with unresolved safety issues have a separate, time-sensitive track outside of litigation. As of 2026, the 2023 Fisker Ocean is subject to six NHTSA recalls and four federal safety investigations. Recall issues include:

Transmission error and rollaway risk (24V-865), a software fault that can prevent the car from shifting into park.
Reduced regenerative braking (24V-623).
Loss of drive power (24V-499), tied to a water pump failure that puts the high-voltage battery into “limp mode.”
Door handle failure (24V-466), where exterior handles stick and fail to open, potentially trapping occupants.

Three recalls call for software updates and two require physical parts replacement.¹²

Fisker initially tried to charge owners for recall repairs, then reversed course in September 2024 and committed to covering parts and labor at no cost.¹³ The bankruptcy estate is funding the remaining recall work, and the enrollment deadline for owners to schedule repairs or seek reimbursement for work already done by third-party shops is June 30, 2026.¹⁴ Some owners have continued to file NHTSA complaints into May 2026 reporting unresolved recall issues and cars unable to receive software updates because of persistent connectivity failures.¹²

The Software Collapse Behind the Owner Claims

Part of the reason so many owners have sought legal help is that their cars have become progressively less functional. The October 2024 bankruptcy plan included a provision where American Lease, the buyer of roughly 3,300 unsold vehicles, paid $2.5 million for access to Fisker’s cloud software and agreed to share that access with more than 6,000 Fisker Ocean owners in the United States.¹⁵

That deal fell apart. According to reporting, the agreement between American Lease and the Fisker Owners Association was never formally signed and collapsed over a payment dispute, with American Lease reportedly demanding the owners association cover 58% of operational costs without itemized invoices. When the arrangement broke, American Lease revoked remote connectivity, cut cloud features, and blocked a pending software recall update.¹⁶¹⁷ As of mid-2026, over-the-air updates from the manufacturer no longer exist, and volunteer developers have reverse-engineered portions of the infotainment and connectivity software to keep cars usable. Core safety-critical software, developed by Magna and other suppliers, cannot be fully open-sourced.

Other Actions Against Fisker and Its Founders

Two related proceedings sit outside the class action framework but are worth knowing about. The Securities and Exchange Commission has confirmed an investigation into potential federal securities law violations tied to the preservation of records and documents in connection with Fisker’s Chapter 11 filing. No charges had been publicly announced as of the most recent reporting.¹⁸

Separately, in March 2023 a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge entered a $6.1 million judgment against Henrik Fisker, Geeta Gupta-Fisker, and Fisker Inc. in favor of Dr. Fabio Albano, a former vice president of battery systems. The judgment confirmed an arbitration award over shares Albano was entitled to for selling his solid-state battery patent to the company; Fisker had argued he forfeited those shares by resigning.¹⁹ The founders remain named defendants in the securities class action as well.

1
CourtListener. Mohamed A. Zahabi v. Fisker Inc.
2
Los Angeles Times. SEC Confirms It Is Investigating Fisker
3
Robbins LLP. Fisker Inc. Securities Class Action
4
BusinessWire. Gibbs Law Group Investigates Potential Securities Law Violations
5
PACER Monitor. Mohamed A. Zahabi v. Fisker Inc. et al
6
Autobody News. 800 Fisker Ocean Owners Join Class Action Lawsuit Against Bankrupt EV Maker
7
Hagens Berman. Fisker Ocean Electric Vehicles Loss Recovery
8
Hagens Berman. Law Firm With Historic Auto Litigation Practice Seeking Recovery for Fisker Owners Abandoned in Automaker’s Bankruptcy
9
SEC. Fisker Inc. Form 8-K
10
Davis Polk. Fisker Confirms and Consummates Chapter 11 Plan
11
Verita Global. Fisker Inc. Liquidating Trust Report
12
NHTSA. 2023 Fisker Ocean Safety Information
13
TechCrunch. Fisker Reverses Course on Making Ocean Owners Pay for Recall Repairs
14
Fisker Inc. Fisker Recall Information
15
Inside EVs. Fisker EV Cloud Services Liquidation
16
Electrek. Fisker Ocean Open Source EV Story After Bankruptcy
17
CarBuzz. Fisker Ocean American Lease Software Support Falls Through
18
Compliance Week. EV Maker Fisker Under Investigation by SEC Amid Bankruptcy, ICFR Weaknesses
19
EIN Presswire. Los Angeles County Superior Court Enters $6.1 Million Judgment Against Henrik Fisker, Dr. Geeta Fisker and Fisker Inc.