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Exhaust gas fraud: VW promises compensation to 50,000 diesel buyers

2020-09-04T11:36:17.288Z


The long-standing disputes about compensation for diesel buyers in Germany could soon come to an end: VW wants to agree on compensation payments with tens of thousands of customers by the end of 2020.


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Flags in front of the VW plant in Zwickau: According to Volkswagen, there have been around 244,000 settlement deals so far

Photo: Hendrik Schmidt / dpa

Volkswagen is looking for an agreement with the other plaintiffs by the end of the year following the basic rulings of the Federal Court of Justice in diesel fraud.

"All in all, there are around 50,000 proceedings in which we are aiming for a comparison," said a VW spokesman.

The cases have nothing to do with the settlements concluded in the context of the model declaratory action, rather they are individual lawsuits from VW customers.

In more than half of the cases, the car manufacturer is in talks with representatives of the plaintiffs about one-off payments, and in more than 7000 cases the settlement negotiations have even been successfully concluded.

Most of the ongoing proceedings should be ended by the end of the year in agreement with the plaintiffs, it said.

At the end of May, the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) sentenced Volkswagen to pay damages for willful immoral damage and fraudulent misrepresentation.

The BGH followed this line in further rulings, but limited the claims for damages of damaged customers.

Deadline in autumn 2015

Customers who bought their diesel after September 22nd, 2015 are not entitled to any compensation.

On this day, VW had issued a press release about irregularities in the software for exhaust gas control in diesel engines.

After that, the BGH was convinced that diesel buyers could no longer argue with fraudulent deception.

In the out-of-court settlement that is now being sought, VW is following the requirements of the BGH.

For example, a replacement for the use of the vehicle is deducted from the plaintiff.

In contrast to the model declaratory action, it is therefore not possible to name a flat rate for certain models, VW said.

Around 244,000 settlement agreements based on the model lawsuit

In the course of the settlement, laboriously negotiated with consumer advocates in the spring, Volkswagen provided 830 million euros to compensate hundreds of thousands of diesel customers.

The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) withdrew its model declaratory action after the settlement.

According to VW, around 750 million euros of the 830 million euros have now been paid out.

There are around 244,000 settlement agreements, the settlement has been completed in more than 95 percent of the cases and the respective compensation amount has been transferred.

Of the approximately 265,000 beneficiaries, more than 90 percent would have accepted a settlement.

Icon: The mirror

beb / Reuters

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2020-09-04

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