A German Court ordered VW to reimburse a consumer for the full price of a car equipped with the emissions’ cheating device. The judges based this ruling on the intentional nature of the fraud and underlined that VW could not defend itself by stating that they did not know who was responsible for this fraud. They qualified the fraud as “an illegal manipulation of engine control” which in their opinion must have been decided at the highest levels considering the economic ramifications.
Whereas this is the second ruling in Germany ordering VW to reimburse a consumer for the full price, the position taken by those judges has subsequently been rejected in others courts in Germany.
In Europe, where redress measures seem to be lagging behind those taken in the US, these decisions might be followed by others in procedures from consumers seeking compensation.
As a reminder, in the US, a compensation plan of $14.7 billion was reached in October 2016 between VW and the US authorities for cars with 2.0-liter Diesel engines. VW will fix or buy back nearly 500.000 cars. Another agreement was reached in December 2016 for 85.000 cars with 3.0-liter Diesel engines for the sum of $1 billion.
In Europe, a compensation plan for VW’s customers would cost VW up to 250 billion euros (850.000 vehicles equipped with this illegal device have been sold in Europe). In September 2016, the European Commission announced its willingness to ensure that European consumers get a fair treatment and the Commissioner for Internal Market and Industry has called for voluntary compensation of European consumers without the need for a class action.
Car owners however are not the only ones concerned by this fraud. BETTER FINANCE decided to join the Stichting Volkswagen Investors' Claim in order to obtain redress for VW investors. To join this legal action and to stay informed, you can register with BETTER FINANCE who will put all Volkswagen Investors in touch with DSW and the Stichting Volkswagen Investors' Claim.
Calling on all VW investors - Volkswagen Investor Claims: Registration
Read Bloomberg article here
Read the European Commission Press release here