Bosch has to release documents

Z ur legal processing of the diesel crisis at VW must be the supplier Bosch in the opinion of the Stuttgart district court probably publish numerous documents. According to preliminary estimates, Bosch could not rely on the right to refuse to give evidence, said the responsible judge on Wednesday. A decision has not yet been made.

The plaintiffs want Bosch to bring about an e-mail change between employees of the supplier and VW employees as well as a letter from the legal department of Bosch VW to submit to the court. Bosch refuses so far.

The procedures initiated by VW investors are not directed against the supplier, but against the VW parent company Porsche SE. Investors accuse VW and Porsche SE of informing the markets too late about the diesel drama, which they reject. With the documents, they want to prove that the VW management knew much more than it admits.

Bosch had supplied VW with the basic version of the software, which was widely used to manipulate exhaust emissions in diesel cars. According to the court, the Group invokes, inter alia, a confidentiality agreement with VW and also that with the publication of the documents business secrets would be public and third parties could also use the findings in order to substantiate claims against Bosch. For the time being, however, the court does not consider this argument to be valid.