In the diesel affair, the prosecutor Braunschweig has imposed a fine of one billion euros against VW. The car manufacturer wants to accept that.
imago / Tom Maelsa
VW plant in Wolfsburg
Wednesday, 13.06.2018
5:56 pm
The prosecutor Braunschweig has a fine against Volkswagen in terms of diesel affair adopted. The company has to pay a fine of one billion euros.
According to the results of the investigations of the prosecutor’s office, it came to “breaches of supervision in the department of aggregate development in connection with the vehicle inspection,” it says in the message.
According to the prosecutors, these are “contributing factors” to the fact that from mid-2007 to 2015 “a total of 10.7 million vehicles with the EA 288 (Gen3) diesel engine in the USA and Canada and EA 189 worldwide with an inadmissible software function were sold to customers and placed on the market “.
995 million euros for the removal of economic benefits
According to Volkswagen, the fine is made up of the maximum legal penalty of € 5 million and a reduction of economic benefits totaling € 995 million.
The carmaker announced that it would file no appeal against the fine. “Volkswagen is thus committed to its responsibility for the diesel crisis and sees in this another important step to its management,” it said in the message. This would terminate a current administrative offense procedure.
“Volkswagen believes that the termination of this procedure will also have a significant positive impact on further Europe have legal proceedings against Volkswagen AG and its affiliates. “
MyRight: Last obstacle to the success of the class action
The legal service provider MyRight, to which 15,000 VW diesel owners have assigned their claims for damages, refers to the decision of the prosecutor as the last obstacle to the success of the class action. “Courts are now hardly able to dismiss consumer complaints.More today, more than 90 percent of the lawsuits by judgment or settlement in favor of Scheldtelsel owners,” says founder Jan-Eike Andresen.
Christopher Rother, partner of the law firm Hausfeld, which represents damaged diesel buyers, says: “The decision of the prosecutor Braunschweig shows that Volkswagen has violated the law and that it is not a trivial offense.” Now it is time to draw the responsible VW managers to the criminal responsibility.
The diesel affair started rolling in 2015 when Volkswagen had to admit that it had installed software to manipulate exhaust emissions in millions of vehicles. The scandal also spread to other manufacturers.