It's time for Volkswagen to add up. Five years after admitting the installation of fake software in more than eleven million vehicles worldwide to make them appear much less polluting than in real driving conditions during the homologation tests, the VW group begins to pay the pots broken. To date, the German manufacturer has spent more than 30 billion euros in legal fees, fines and compensation, mainly in the United States. While the investigation launched in France on dieselgate has still not been completed, a foundation of Dutch origin announced this Thursday morning in Paris the launch of a collective action in France against VW. The opportunity for customers victims of the rigging of their car to hope to be compensated.
One million cars affected in France
"8.5 million European car owners, including almost one million on French soil, have suffered damage and are therefore entitled to just and fair compensation", says Maria José Azar-Baud, spokesperson for the Diesel emissions justice foundation. Based in Amsterdam, this Dutch organization aims to "facilitate access to justice for European owners and lessees, former or current, of vehicles involved in the Volkswagen fraud". "The German firm has paid billions of euros in compensation following class actions on other continents, such as in the United States or Australia, but no transaction of this type has been concluded in Europe while the number of rigged cars sold is much more substantial ”underlines Maria José Azar-Baud. The foundation estimates that the customers of faked cars can deplore "a loss of value of their vehicles, in particular with the resale".
VW says "no harm"
Contacted, Volkswagen France believes that its customers "have not suffered any harm, all cars can be used on the road safely". "These cars continue to be driven by hundreds of thousands of customers every day," added the automaker. All necessary approvals are valid and well established. For these reasons, there is, in our view, no legal basis giving rise to customer complaints. A new initiative does not change this position "
A website for injured customers
After launching legal action in the Netherlands in September and in Belgium in November, the foundation encourages French customers (who bought or rented a Volkswagen between 2008 and 2015) to join its class action. You just need to register on the site www.emissionsjustice.fr . To be represented - free of charge - in the context of the negotiations that the foundation wishes to operate with VW or in legal proceedings which would be launched if no amicable financial agreement is found with the automobile group. Behind this foundation acts behind the scenes a Dutch company composed in particular of legal professionals who finance this procedure at a cost of millions of euros. If they obtain compensation, they will reserve a percentage of up to 27.5% of the sums recovered from the group.
The association of rural families involved
Present this Thursday alongside the Dutch foundation, the association for the defense of rural family consumers, which represents 160,000 families in France, supports this approach. "For the same damage, American customers were compensated while Europeans were not even received or heard, fulminates the vice-president, Chantal Jannet. These double standards are no longer possible and VW must face up to its responsibilities. ” "Isolated clients do not necessarily have the means to take legal action when, with this collective action, unity is strength," said the foundation, which hopes to obtain as much compensation as American, Australian or Canadian clients.
Precedents in other countries
"The VW firm has been forced to pay $ 25 billion in fines and compensation in the United States," recalls Maria José Azar-Baud. The compensation for American customers ranges from 2,000 to 10,000 dollars (1,800 to 9,000 euros) depending on the value of the vehicle and its duration of use. ” After an amicable agreement reached between the manufacturer and the Canadian government, Volkswagen was also condemned this Wednesday to pay a fine of 196.5 million Canadian dollars (135 million euros). The automaker had pleaded guilty to 58 charges of violating environmental laws in the country. This fine is in addition to the almost 2.4 billion Canadian dollars (1.65 million euros) that the German group had previously agreed to pay in Canada to compensate customers who bought substandard cars between 2009 and 2016.
