Pattern process begins in Braunschweig: prelude to the billion battle for VW

09/10/2018

Pattern process begins in Braunschweig prelude to the billion battle for VW

DPA

VW administration building on the Mittelland canal

Immediately before the opening of the model procedure of investors in Volkswagen–diesel scandal Both sides are self-confident: “We are not afraid of the arguments,” said Andreas Tilp, attorney for the model plaintiff Deka Investment. He announced that the proceedings would go to the Federal Court anyway, “no matter who wins or loses.” VW lawyer Markus Pfüller emphasized that the procedure was all about whether Volkswagen fulfilled its disclosure obligations to shareholders and the capital market: “We are convinced that this is the case.”

The oral hearing at the Higher Regional Court of Braunschweig starts on Monday (10.00 clock) – the shareholders demand in the model proceedings damages worth billions of euros for losses suffered. The key question is: Has VW informed the markets in good time about the affair surrounding millions of frauds with manipulated diesel engines? Immediately after the scandal became public at the end of September 2015, the VW share price had collapsed – at times the Group’s preferred paper lost almost half of its value. Investors suffered heavy losses.

Overall, the plaintiffs, especially institutional investors, claim nearly € 9 billion. In the model procedure itself, the amount in dispute is currently almost 4 billion euros. According to Tilp’s words, the Sparkassen-Fund subsidiary Deka Investment alone demands more than 200 million euros as a model plaintiff. The further proceedings – around 1670 claims are pending – are pending the result in the process conducted under the Capital Investor Model Law.

Who knew what when?

According to VW lawyer Pfüller, it will go in the process first to the other roadmap, to the court will communicate his ideas. First and foremost, it had to be clarified which content-related priorities the court wanted to set, which would then reveal to what circumstances witnesses might be heard. So far, the court has scheduled 13 days of trial before the end of the year. Design defendants are Volkswagen and VW’s majority shareholder Porsche SE.

In the mammoth process, it is likely to go to the most exciting question about the exhaust scandal: Who knew when what in the VW Group? In the opinion of attorney Tilp this affects not only the former group leader Martin Winterkorn and the board level – even if managers of the level were among them Mitwisser, this is attributed to the Group.

Above all, Volkswagen made it clear with the statement of the defense submitted at the end of February that from the group’s point of view there was no concrete indication that the affair was relevant to the price until the US Environmental Protection Agency unexpectedly made public its allegations on 18 September 2015. The law requires that news that can affect goodwill be published promptly (“ad hoc”).

Tilp on the other hand emphasized that no later than June 2008, Volkswagen was aware that the strict US requirements for nitrogen oxide emissions could not be met. After VW had cheated – and because investors did not know that, they had bought shares too expensive.

dpa-AFX

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