Over the recent months the Stichting Volkswagen Investors Claim has been very active in pursuing the interests of investors that have suffered damages from “Dieselgate”. The Foundation recently sent out a letter to provide interested parties with an update of the most recent developments and inform them about possible ways in which to pursue claims against Volkswagen Group.
The Foundation’s board has been seeking support for its view that the optimal way to reach a solution for all relevant stakeholders would be to achieve an out of court settlement, reaching out to Volkswagen´s management and representatives of major shareholders of Volkswagen as well as through the media.
Despite this outreach, Volkswagen has maintained its complete denial of any wrongdoing towards its investors thereby further harming the Group’s business. As a consequence of this attitude new law suits are initiated on a daily basis, which are likely to result in KapMuG proceedings bundling identical or similar securities law suits. According to news reports these model case proceedings are expected to start at the earliest by the end of 2016 with a 6-month period during which aggrieved investors can file applications to register their claims with reference to the KapMuG proceeding.
KapMuG proceedings are the only legal proceedings available in Germany to deal with mass damages in security cases but so far their effectiveness remains uncertain since none of the ongoing cases have so far been brought to conclusion.
In a warning to those who registered with the Foundation, the letter reminds investors that the registration of a claim with the Foundation does not forego any applicable German statute of limitation. However, it states that aggrieved shareholder who file a lawsuit in Germany prior to September 18, 2016 will not be confronted by the statute of limitation.
For those investors considering starting legal action against Volkswagen prior to September 18, 2016 in order to avoid the risk of their claims being time barred, the Foundation and DSW, Germany’s oldest and largest association for private investors, recommend to contact the well-respected German law firm Nieding + Barth Rechtsanwaltsaktiengesellschaft that offers investors a method to collectively participate in an investor claim against Volkswagen at relatively low costs and with limited cost risks.
On the other hand the Foundation wishes to highlight that it will continue to pursue its efforts to commence negotiations with Volkswagen AG about a reasonable and fair settlement, which would be in the interest of both investors and the corporation.
Please find more detailed information in the full letter from Stichting Volkswagen Investors Claim here.