Will diesel customers get compensation from VW for excessive emissions and reduced vehicle values?
For a long time, no decision emerged in the first model trial over the class action lawsuit of hundreds of thousands of diesel customers. But now there is movement in the dispute.
In the process of possible compensation for hundreds of thousands of diesel drivers, Volkswagen and the Federal Association of Consumer Centers (vzbv) enter into comparative talks.
This was announced by VW and vzbv on Thursday. This increases the chances of the approximately 444,000 participating plaintiffs in the proceedings at the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court to enforce claims against VW due to the loss in value of their cars in the exhaust gas scandal.
“The common goal of vzbv and Volkswagen is a pragmatic solution in the interests of the customers,” it said in the short message. The talks are at a very early stage. “It is not clear whether there will be a comparison.”
The presiding judge at the Higher Regional Court, Michael Neef, had already promoted negotiations between the carmaker and the consumer advocates at the first meetings on the model declaratory action in September and November.
While VW has already spent billions on customer compensation in the United States, the car maker in Germany has so far not been willing to do so.
The Braunschweig Higher Regional Court has been hearing in the model proceedings in Braunschweig since the end of September. It is about compensation for at least 400,000 buyers of manipulated diesel vehicles of the brands VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda, which had registered in the complaint register. In the so-called model declaratory complaint, the consumer advice center went to court on behalf of car buyers.
In September 2015, after tests by authorities and research by researchers in the United States, Volkswagen admitted manipulations of the exhaust gas values of diesel cars. The software of certain engines was set so that in actual operation on the road significantly more toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) were emitted than in tests.
In Germany, too, customers feel cheated, complain individually or join the model declaratory action. In the event of success, specific claims must be enforced using our own procedures.
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