Volkswagen
Bavaria claims damages for about 1000 VW vehicles in the country’s fleet.
DüsseldorfBayern is a loyal customer of VolkswagenGroup, thousands of state officials drive cars VW– and Audi-Logo. But loyalty has its limits. The company has deceived environmental authorities, registration offices and car customers in the exhaust gas scandal – including the Free State. He does not want to let the Wolfsburgers get away with this: Bayern filed a lawsuit on the last day of 2018 with the Landgericht München. This has been reported by the Ministry of Finance on Handelsblatt demand.
Bayern calls therefore compensation for about 1000 VW vehicles in the country’s fleet, which are affected by the diesel scandal. How much money it actually goes is still unclear. Before an exact amount of damage could be named, further surveys would have to be made, according to the ministry.
Bavaria is not the only country that feels cheated. Rhineland-Palatinate also demands damages from Volkswagen, as the Ministry of Finance has confirmed to Handelsblatt. The country has filed a complaint at the end of December and demands a sum in the low single-digit millions. It concerns to 121 bought vehicles of the brands VW and Skoda,
Volkswagen did not want to comment on the complaints. The details are unknown to the company. However, the Group sees no legal basis for the claims of the affected customers, as a spokesman said. The vehicles are technically safe, ready to drive and could continue to be sold.
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Similarly, Volkswagen had already expressed as mid-December had become known Baden-Württemberg has filed a claim for damages, The country demands from Volkswagen in the Stuttgart district court damages in the low tens of millions. Affected are 1400 cars from the Baden-Württemberg fleet.
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The black-green state government had justified the complaint with the Landeshaushaltsordnung. It states that revenues are “to be levied in time and in full”. A possible compensation should be regarded as a potential revenue, the country therefore committed to action.
Corresponding passages are in the state budget regulations of all 16 federal states. The Baden-Württemberg government estimates its chances of success in court as high. However, not all countries complain that their vehicles are affected by the diesel scandal.
Four countries examine claims for damages
Lower Saxony, for example, refrains from a lawsuit against Volkswagen – although a request in 2016 had revealed that at that time 1328 company vehicles were affected by the diesel scandal. Reasons for that did not want to call a government spokeswoman. The state holds 20 percent of the group.
The states of Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein announced that they are currently examining claims for damages. Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia had also been considering lawsuits. The relevant ministries have refrained from doing so after a preliminary examination.
The states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt each have several hundred police cars affected by the diesel scandal, but they also do not want to sue. The vehicles in Saxony are “fully operational and did not have to be withdrawn from circulation,” said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry the Handelsblatt. The authority in Saxony-Anhalt could find no damage, since it was not planned to sell the cars at some point.
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In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania currently 366 purchased VW cars are affected by the diesel scandal. All have received a software update, according to the Interior Ministry. An action is therefore not provided for. The 257 vehicles affected by the diesel scandal in the fleet of the Berlin police and fire brigade also received software updates. Nevertheless, it comes to its comparatively high emissions, when the cars are heavily loaded. According to a spokesman, an ineffectiveness of the software can not be clearly proven. The country estimated the risk in court as too high and therefore waive a lawsuit.
Brandenburg had already agreed out of court with Volkswagen at the end of 2017. At that time, the company had promised the country to ensure that the approximately 700 police vehicles concerned would be able to run if technical problems arose. In court, one has calculated less chance of such a result, said the Interior Ministry.
The Saarland claimed to have only a small number of vehicles in the fleet of the country, which may be affected by the diesel scandal. A loss of value is not to be expected for these vehicles because of the high age or strike because of the low residual value not to book.
Municipalities are also considering lawsuits
Municipalities are also investigating potential claims for damages against Volkswagen for the diesel scandal. In Dusseldorf 18 purchased and affected by the diesel scandal VW vehicles have already received a software update, the city but still consider a possible economic damage.
Even a spokeswoman for the city of Stuttgart did not want to exclude a lawsuit. But there are still many questions of a “legal, political and financial nature” that need to be clarified first.