Although Volkswagen has paid tens of billions of dollars for the “emissions gate”, litigation and compensation are still in progress. According to foreign media reports, Germany’s supreme civil court ruled on May 25 that the German Volkswagen Group must pay civil compensation to consumers who suffered losses due to “exhaust door”. Volkswagen group can buy back a diesel car with exhaust cheating software from a car owner at a discount price. The standard amount of repurchase is based on the mileage of the car and the corresponding discount is based on the original price.
According to reports, the plaintiff in the case is Herbert Gilbert, who bought a diesel version of the Volkswagen Sharang utility vehicle in 2014. After the exposure of Volkswagen’s “emission door” scandal, Gilbert took Volkswagen Group to court and asked it to buy back the car at full price. According to the financial times, the Federal High Court ruled that Volkswagen group lost the lawsuit, and Volkswagen group had to compensate Gilbert by 25600 euros (about 199200 yuan), but 6000 euros less than the original price. According to the statistics of Volkswagen Group, there are about 60000 similar cases in Germany, and the judgments of the German Supreme civil court provide a “template” for these cases. Volkswagen Group said that the vast majority of the 60000 cases can be dealt with in accordance with the ruling, and Volkswagen will seek to settle these lawsuits with the plaintiff as soon as possible. In other words, car owners are expected to receive compensation of up to 25600 euros.
In September 2015, Volkswagen Group was exposed to be false in diesel vehicle exhaust detection, affecting 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. In 2016, almost all affected U.S. car owners agreed to participate in VW’s $25 billion settlement. In April 2020, the British court formally ruled that the “cheating software” used in the vehicles involved in the “emission door” of the Volkswagen Group was in violation of the regulations, so that the British consumers could take a class action against the Volkswagen Group. The automaker is facing multiple lawsuits worldwide, and the cost of paying fines, recalls and settlements has already cost the group huge losses. It is worth mentioning that a few days ago, in order to avoid the trial of Volkswagen CEO DIDEs and chairman of the board of supervisors, Mr. Pan Shi, for “market manipulation” charges, Volkswagen Group agreed to pay 9 million euro out of court settlement funds to reach a settlement with German prosecutors. However, the cases of Wende, the former chief executive officer, and steed, the former chief executive of Audi, are still under trial.
According to previous statistics, Volkswagen Group has been fined more than 30 billion euro (233.493 billion yuan) for the “emission gate” incident. According to the financial report released by Volkswagen Group, the “special project expenditure” caused by diesel “emission gate” in 2019 is 2.3 billion euro (about RMB 17.901 billion yuan), and there is no “special project expenditure” in the first quarter of this year. However, in the same period of last year, the profit decreased by 1 billion euro due to the “emission door” scandal.