Model declaratory action against VW
The settlement negotiations failed for the time being, 400,000 VW customers were affected.
Düsseldorf The Comparative negotiations between the Federal Consumer Association (vzbv) and Volkswagen have failed for the time being. The carmaker said on Friday that an agreement had already been reached with the association. The comparison did an order of 830 million euros had. at maximum 400,000 affected would result in an average claim of 2000 euros for everyone VW-Customer who joined the model declaratory action.
Volkswagen said the deal failed due to the lawyers’ demands. “The litigation attorneys of the Federal Consumer Advice Center insisted until the end on a lump sum payment of 50 million euros for the settlement,” said a spokesman for VW.
The legal advisers of the consumer association would never have provided sufficient concrete evidence of the services for which these 50 million euros should be paid to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. “They refused to have an independent legal review of their fee claims. However, a payment without a sufficiently concrete proof of performance or without a legal reason is impossible for Volkswagen, ”said the spokesman.
The VW board decided on Friday to offer the affected customers a comparison package for a total of 830 million euros. That would be an average of around 2000 euros per customer.
vzbv boss Klaus Müller wants to comment on the settlement negotiations with VW in the afternoon. The lawyers of the association are the Russ Litigation law firm, an amalgamation of Dr. Stoll & Sauer and Rogert & Ulbrich.
The two law firms are among the leading representatives of diesel customers who are suing VW. Based on this expertise, they were selected by the consumer association to accompany the model declaratory action.
Dispute about the settlement
Lawyer Marco Rogert denied to the Handelsblatt that the agreement failed due to the demands of the lawyers. “These are just pretexts,” said Rogert. Due to the confidentiality clause, to which he still feels bound, unlike VW, it did not want to comment on further details.
According to Handelsblatt information, there was a dispute over the settlement of a possible settlement. So far it is unclear how such a mammoth procedure can be organized. The register is maintained by the Federal Office of Justice.
To date, it has not been finally clarified how many claims are actually justified. The register still has to be cleaned up for registrations that do not drive a vehicle with the manipulated EA 189 engine at all. Only then could the approximately 400,000 cases be processed. This would require a technical and personnel solution.
At the beginning of January, VW and vzbv had declared that they wanted to talk about an out-of-court settlement to the model process. Both sides called the “common goal of a pragmatic solution in the interests of the customers”. VW had long been skeptical about this.
With agency material