Almost three years after the revelations about the handling of diesel engines, the German manufacturer Volkswagen is sanctioned in Germany, where the group announced Wednesday night that it would pay a fine of one billion euros.
At the origin of the fine: the prosecutor’s office of Braunschweig, located in the Land of Lower Saxony, where the headquarters of the manufacturer is based, and whose investigators revealed “breaches of the obligation of supervision” in the context vehicle tests carried out within the group’s engine development department.
Specifically, the prosecution accuses the group of marketing 10.7 million vehicles with EA288 diesel engines in the United States and Canada and EA189 worldwide, and equipped with “an unauthorized software feature between -2007 and 2015, “says Volkswagen in a statement.
Responsibility
Volkswagen has announced that it will not appeal the decision of the authorities, “thus admitting its responsibility” in the diesel crisis that continues to shake the industry and has helped to challenge the future of diesel in Europe.
The group, which has admitted to rigging eleven million vehicles around the world to circumvent anti-pollution tests, hopes to turn the page of the scandal in Europe. “Volkswagen assumes that the end of this procedure will also have significant positive effects on other administrative procedures launched against Volkswagen AG and its companies in Europe,” says the group.
The empire with twelve brands (Seat, Skoda, Audi …) had already paid a fine in the United States, where the scandal erupted in September 2015.
Bill
This new fine adds to Volkswagen’s “dieselgate” bill, which has so far been more than 25 billion euros.
Volkswagen is the subject of further judicial investigations in Germany, notably for market manipulation. The investigators are investigating whether group leaders warned their investors too late about the scandal.
This is one of the biggest fines imposed on a German company because of an economic crime, said Wednesday evening the newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.