Volkswagen escapes a loss of millions due to data protection violations when dealing with the diesel scandal. The Lower Saxony data protection officer had requested a fine of 4.3 million euros for the car manufacturer. However, this is not being pursued because the Hanover public prosecutor’s office had forgotten the signature at the decisive brief, as a spokesman confirmed at the request of the German press agency. The Lower Saxony Political Journal “Rundblick” had previously reported.
The data protection officer had complained about the transfer of data to US supervisor Larry Thompson (79), who was used by Volkswagen between 2017 and 2020. VW has not sufficiently informed its employees and thus violated the General Data Protection Regulation, according to the accusation.
Volkswagen defended himself against the penalty imposed in court – initially with success: The Hanover Regional Court agreed to the carmaker in the first instance at the end of February. The public prosecutor, on the other hand, filed a complaint with the Higher Regional Court, but had to take it back. Reason: At the grounds, the necessary signature of the responsible public prosecutor was missing, as the speaker granted.
The judgment of the regional court in favor of the Wolfsburgers has existed that VW does not have to pay a fine. It remains open whether the Higher Regional Court would have decided in this way, since there is now no renewed negotiation. The spokesman for the public prosecutor spoke of an individual case that was based on a chain of unfortunate circumstances. He referred to the high workload in the authority.
Individual case or scandal?
The opposition CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament, on the other hand, senses a scandal and wants to advise the matter on the legal committee. It is not about an accident on the side, but about a serious mistake that causes massive financial damage to the state of Lower Saxony, said a spokeswoman for the faction.
With his lawsuit against the underlying data protection complaint itself, VW had little success. The district court, but the administrative court had to decide on this, VW was only able to win a partial victory there a week ago.
Two of the five warnings that Lower Saxony’s data protection officer had pronounced in 2023 were lifted. The crucial complaint about the defective information on data protection, for which the fine should be due, had existed. The judgment is not yet final, VW can still complain to the Higher Administrative Court. However, this no longer has an impact on the fine.
The diesel scandal was public in autumn 2015 after USA Manipulation in the exhaust gas measurements on VW diesel engines were blown up. The legal consequences of the exhaust gas scandal have so far cost VW more than 32 billion euros.