Outside the courtroom, Volkswagen and the Federal Association of Consumer Centers broke up in a violent dispute. Now they want to continue talking about compensation for diesel customers - with the help of an experienced lawyer.
Braunschweig / Berlin (dpa) - After days of fuss and harsh reproaches, the cautious rapprochement follows: After the failure of their talks about a comparison for diesel customers, Volkswagen and consumer advocates are now continuing to negotiate in court.
The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Braunschweig announced on Thursday that both sides had decided to do so. Several hundreds of thousands of diesel drivers have already filed a model declaratory judgment against VW at the OLG for excessive emissions in their vehicles.
"On the advice of the court" the parties to the dispute wanted to talk to one another again before a so-called judge, it was said. This should moderate the discussions as a kind of arbitrator. The head of the OLG and former State Secretary in the Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice, Wolfgang Scheibel, take on the task.
Last week, VW and the Federal Association of Consumer Centers (vzbv) had broken off their initially out-of-court consultations on a settlement for the more than 400,000 diesel customers from the model procedure and blamed each other for this. Above all, they assumed responsibility for increasing the time pressure with ultimatums - in the end, the solution that was actually aimed for burst. Volkswagen then decided to make the customer itself an offer with a total of around 830 million euros.
Both sides declared that they would accept the OLG's invitation. On the whole, however, they held on to their respective positions. "Nothing has changed in the requirement that a comparison must be carried out fairly, transparently and verifiably," emphasized the vzbv.
The consumer advocates had expressed doubts that VW would grant each individual customer a payment according to clearly understandable criteria in the "direct comparison" offered. VW chief legal adviser Manfred Döss told the German press agency that the process would of course be "transparent" and independently controlled. The company is now concerned with "finally making peace with customers". VW announced on Thursday that it would also like to take part in the moderated discussion at the OLG.
Döss had said about his own offer: "After all, we want the customer to accept the offer if he has decided for himself that it is right for him." The system for processing is to be available from the end of March. "We will set up an IT solution in which the customer can enter key data such as vehicle identification number and other information from the registration papers. Then he will receive an offer tailored to his personal situation."
There was initially no date for the quality negotiation - nor for the expected follow-up negotiations for the model lawsuit, which continues in parallel with the settlement talks at the OLG. In its own offer to diesel customers, VW plans to scale the amount of compensation based on the date of purchase of the car between 2008 and 2015 and a total of nine different vehicle classes. Depending on the individual case, between 1350 and 6257 euros should be paid.
The conflict over the termination of the bilateral negotiations was sparked by the amount of fees paid to vzbv lawyers. VW was disturbed by the fact that a flat-rate claim of 50 million euros in remuneration had not been justified.