Volkswagen facing more Dieselgate fines after court ruling

Germany’s highest court tore a huge hole in the Volkswagen Group’s domestic Dieselgate defence, opening it up to a class-action lawsuit from at least 400,000 Europeans.

The Federal Court of Justice judged that Volkswagen’s argument that its emissions-cheating software was legal in Europe, though illegal in the US, was completely wrong.

As in Australia, Volkswagen has stoically refused to compensate its affected European owners, and even launched a last-minute attempt to settle the case before the verdict was handed down.

Instead, the Federal Court classified the cheater software as a “material defect” that should be addressed under Volkswagen’s warranty protocols, effectively opening the door to any owner of a Dieselgate car to claim compensation.

The company has been trying since September 2015 to avoid the cost of compensating European customers and the Court’s decision effectively torpedoes that strategy.

The Court went out of its way to rebuke Volkswagen without wanting to be used as a door opener to lawsuits, though, insisting it didn’t allow “concrete conclusions” for other lawsuits.

It also gave Volkswagen an escape clause, insisting it was impossible to deliver new vehicles to disappointed customers because the Tiguan today is “totally different” to the 2015 Tiguan.

So far, Dieselgate is estimated to have cost the Volkswagen Group €28 billion, involving 11 million cars around the world.