Volkswagen to face first major class action lawsuit in Germany over “dieselgate” affair

The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv) together with auto club ADAC will file a class action lawsuit against Volkswagen for “intentionally and immorally causing harm to and betraying customers with software manipulation” to obfuscate its diesel vehicles’ true emissions levels, the vzbv says in a press release. The two organisations say they will sue Germany’s biggest carmaker on 1 November, the day on which class action lawsuits will become permissible in Germany. The lawsuit will be open to customers of the brands Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, and Skoda with car models that have been subject to an official recall, the press release says. The organisations say they will seek to achieve financial compensation for affected customers who bought their car after 1 November 2008, and will bundle their competencies to make the best use of the “new legal tool” of class action lawsuits.

Read the press release in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheet "Dieselgate"- a timeline of Germany's car emissions fraud scandal and the CLEW article One year after German diesel summit, the air quality challenge remains.