The Hanover public prosecutor’s office has imposed a fine of 100 million euros on the automotive supplier in connection with emissions manipulation Continental imposed. The proceedings for a negligent violation of the duty of supervision were directed against Continental AG and other companies in the group, as the law enforcement authority announced on Thursday in Hanover. “Wirtschaftswoche” had previously reported on this.
The group announced that it would waive legal remedies. It is in the company’s interest that the process is ended. For the 2024 financial year, the fine will not lead to any significant additional burden on earnings due to the provision created. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the payment should be made within six weeks to the state of Lower Saxony, which is the recipient of the fine according to the law.
Investigators are convinced that from mid-2007 more than twelve million engine control units or the corresponding software were delivered by the former Continental drive division to domestic and foreign car manufacturers, including, among others Volkswagen-Group for the EA 189 diesel engine. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the software versions contained at least partially inadmissible strategies.
However, the car manufacturers used the corresponding engine control devices in their vehicles, obtained official approvals and marketed them. According to prosecutors, the equipped vehicles emitted more nitrogen oxides during normal driving than was permitted by regulatory requirements.
Investigations continue
The amount of the fine was made up of a so-called penalty portion and a levy portion. Accordingly, the administrative offense was punished with a total of 5 million euros. The remaining 95 million euros are intended to be used to skim off the economic benefits or saved expenses. The company’s cooperation was taken into account when determining this. The proceedings against the affected companies were legally concluded with payment, but the public prosecutor’s office emphasized that the criminal investigations against former Conti employees were not affected by this.
After the emissions scandal at Volkswagen was exposed in 2015, the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office imposed a fine of one billion euros on the Wolfsburg-based company in 2018 to punish breaches of supervisory duties there. This money also flowed to the state of Lower Saxony at the time. The VW subsidiary Audi Shortly afterwards, he received a fine of 800 million euros from the Munich public prosecutor’s office. In Stuttgart they were at the VW subsidiary Porsche 535 million euros due. From the public prosecutor there also got Daimler In the wake of the diesel scandal, a fine of around 870 million euros was issued.