The 10 Biggest Volkswagen Lawsuits in Company History
Volkswagen AG and the firms in which it has a direct or indirect stake are parties to many pending lawsuits and administrative investigations in Germany and worldwide. Instances of litigation and other judicial processes can arise in various contexts, including those involving products and services, workers, dealers, governmental authorities, investors, suppliers, customers, and other parties with whom the company contracts.
These automotive lawsuits and investigations may lead to fines or other obligations for the firms involved. In particular, it may be necessary to pay large amounts in compensation or punitive damages, and it may be necessary to implement expensive and resource-intensive procedures.
Companies within the Volkswagen Group are in regular communication with government bodies like the German Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt in relation to their operations. It is difficult, if not impossible, to foresee how federal regulators will weigh various aspects of fact and legislation in any given instance.
It is, therefore, impossible to rule out the possibility that some features of the vehicle and components of the type approval may ultimately be found inadequate or unlawful. This depends on how the regulating agency assesses the particular circumstances at hand.
These are the 10 biggest lawsuits in company history.
10. EPA vs. Volkswagen $120,000
The EPA busted Volkswagen in the early 1970s for equipping their vehicles with switches that disabled pollution controls in cold weather. Volkswagen had to pay a pittance in penalty; $120,000. According to Lawyer Monthly, the possibility of EPA fines wasn’t exactly a deterrent well over 40 years later.
Volkswagen defended its recent efforts by claiming that the EPA’s meager penalty indicated that installing emission workarounds (also known as “defeat devices”) made good commercial sense in response to a recent lawsuit by its shareholders.
9. State of Illinois vs. Volkswagen AG $3.5 Million
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (VOWG p.DE) has agreed to pay $3.5 million to the state of Illinois to settle a lawsuit over emissions software updates related to the 2015 diesel doping scandal. Volkswagen’s attempt to shield itself from damage claims brought by other states was shot down by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Volkswagen had already cautioned of potentially staggering losses in state and local litigation. Volkswagen knowingly modified automobiles marketed as “green” to produce more pollution than usual. About 12,000 automobiles will receive $300 each from the Illinois settlement.
This agreement will fully resolve Illinois’ heritage claims and put the above matter behind the corporation as they focus on building a future of sustainable transportation. Volkswagen agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle environmental claims with the states of New Hampshire and Montana. These claims arose from the company’s operations in those states decades ago.
8. Volkswagen U.K. Emissions $242 Million
As many as 91,000 cases have been resolved through a settlement reached outside of court. More than 90,000 drivers in the United Kingdom affected by the emissions crisis agreed to settle their class action lawsuit with Volkswagen for $242 million.
According to Grist, there have been no admissions of guilt made by Volkswagen (V.W.), and the terms and circumstances are confidential. The corporation has committed to making a distinct commitment toward the claimants’ various costs and fees, including those associated with their legal representation.
Volkswagen and the legal firm Slater & Gordon, Leigh Day, and PGMBM, managing the claimants in the lawsuit, said that both sides had come to an out-of-court settlement and more than 91,000 claims had been addressed.
After an investigation conducted in the United States in 2015 revealed that the automaker had used fraudulent software designed to cut emissions during regulatory tests, the automaker has been hit with several lawsuits due to its diesel-rigging controversy.
7. Germany Consumer Federation vs. Volkswagen $816.7 Million
Volkswagen finally settled with Germany’s consumer federation years after the emissions issue broke. The money is a small portion of the total the corporation was forced to pay American customers. A court in the German city of Braunschweig stated that Volkswagen and the German consumer association VZBV had struck a “complete agreement” over a compensation settlement for Volkswagen’s 2015 emission issue.
Depending on the make and model of their vehicle, the 260,000 affected German consumers will receive compensation of $1,484 to $6,879. Volkswagen has set aside a sum of $816.7 million for compensation.
This number is substantially lower than the $15.3 billion a U.S. judge ordered the corporation to pay American consumers. It is then up to the customers to determine whether or not to accept the settlement and end their legal action or to continue their pursuit of more compensation in court.
There will be no compensation for customers who acquired their vehicles after December 31, 2015, months after the issue broke.
6. California vs. Volkswagen $ 1.108 Billion
The Volkswagen Group of America and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) reached a definitive settlement, announced by the CARB, and filed a consent decree (V.W.). Due to the illegal use of “defeat devices” in 2.0 and 3.0-liter diesel vehicles produced and sold in California between 2009 and 2016, the corporation must pay an additional $153.8 million.
Volkswagen has previously paid $533 million to the state of California, with $422 million going into a remediation trust. California Air Resources Board (CARB) legal counsel and technical advisors crafted today’s supplemental consent decree, which is still pending court approval.
According to Annual Report, Volkswagen’s total compensation for breaking emissions standards is the greatest of its kind. CARB Chair Mary Nichols stated that while Volkswagen’s compensation to the state of California “closes another page of the ‘dieselgate’ investigation,” it is not the end of the narrative.
Many buyers have yet to learn what lies in store for their vehicles. Together with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), CARB is trying to determine if the remainder of vehicles can be upgraded. Together with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), CARB is trying to determine if the remainder of vehicles can be upgraded.
5. Obstruction of Justice and Cheating $4.3 Billion
Prosecutors also filed charges against six individual German VW execs for their alleged participation in the scheme. Volkswagen Group pleaded guilty to engaging in a massive conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and obscuring a government investigation into its breach of emissions standards.
For installing software to trick pollution rules in more than 500,000 vehicles and lying to American investigators about the scope of the conspiracy, the manufacturer will pay a criminal sentence of $2.8 billion and civil penalties of $1.5 billion. According to The Guardian, the settlement is still subject to approval by a federal judge in Detroit.
4. Ohio vs. Volkswagen (Estimated to be more than $1 Trillion)
In 2016, the state of Ohio filed a lawsuit against Volkswagen, alleging that the company had acted dishonestly in its recall and update of diesel vehicles sold or leased within their state. After a lower appeals court reinstated Ohio’s lawsuit because it was not preempted by federal law, V.W. filed an appeal.
Justice Patrick Fischer affirmed the lower court’s decision, writing that Ohio’s allegations that Volkswagen violated the state’s Air Pollution Control Act by post-sale meddling with vehicles’ emissions-control systems were not pre-empted or conflicted with federal law.
Because of this, he claimed V.W.’s concerns that it may be fined for conforming to Ohio law “unfounded.” Neither federal nor state law “conflicts” with one another, nor does anything stand in the way of Congress’s goals, as Fischer put it. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Michael Donnelly said that the case might theoretically lead to a judgment of more than $1 trillion.
3. Washington Reuters vs. Volkswagen $9.8 Billion
Settlements for contaminating Volkswagen AG VOWG p.DE automobiles sold in the United States totaled more than $9.8 billion. Volkswagen paid American consumers more than $9.5 billion, whereas V.W. diesel provider Robert Bosch [ROBG. U.L.] compensated Americans more than $300 million. Diesel automobiles with engine displacements of 2.0 liters were the most common types to be examined.
V.W. agreed to compensate owners and lessees of 475,000 2.0-liter vehicles with cash payments of $5,100 to $10,000, depending on the vehicle’s condition and age. According to Get Jerry, fines, vehicle buyback costs, penalties, and other settlements have cost V.W. $33.3 billion after the scandal sparked a global reaction against diesel vehicles.
2. U.S. Government vs. Volkswagen (Emissions Scandal) $14.7 Billion
In federal court in Detroit, the Department of Justice is suing Volkswagen for allegedly breaking the Clean Air Act by placing “defeat devices” in over 600,000 diesel vehicles sold in the United States. In September 2015, V.W. was detected putting software in over 11 million vehicles worldwide designed to deceive authorities into thinking the cars were less polluted than they were by providing lower emissions only when conducting official tests.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that about 10.5 million Volkswagen vehicles were sold globally and many in the U.S. had “defeat devices” or emissions software installed in their diesel engines. In essence, the software could recognize when the car was being evaluated and adjust its behavior to produce better results.
V.W. was accused of participating in a scheme to defraud the United States and V.W.’s American customers, as well as violating the Clean Air Act by lying to the EPA and American consumers. This was about whether specific VW, Audi, and Porsche-branded diesel vehicles complied with American emissions standards, utilizing cheating software to get around American testing procedures and hiding key details about its deception from American regulators.
V.W. has agreed to plead guilty to these charges. In addition, V.W. is accused of obstructing justice by destroying records relating to the program and importing such cars into the United States while making false claims about how well they adhered to pollution regulations. A massive $14.7 billion settlement related to the “defeat device” was accepted in 2016 by a federal judge in San Francisco. The settlement paid out cash bonuses to the owners of 475,000 diesel vehicles and covered the cost of buying back their vehicles at pre-scandal prices.
1. Volkswagen Nitrogen Oxide Emissions $15 Billion
The $15 billion Volkswagen deal revealed by the private and government attorneys had something for everyone. In the event that a diesel owner wishes to sell their vehicle back to Volkswagen, they will be able to do so at the pre-scandal price plus a minimum of $5,100 in cash.
A group of the largest class-action companies in the country shared in a fee pool that was anticipated to go into the billions of dollars. According to L.A. Times, the proposed settlement was 42 pages long, and it included data from a wide variety of parties. These parties included the National Association of Attorneys General and electric vehicle manufacturers.
The settlement’s terms resembled those of the $200 billion tobacco settlement announced in 1998 by state attorneys general and many of the same private lawyers. It does not include the outrageous provisions that effectively gave a small group of large tobacco businesses led by Philip Morris a cartel on cigarette sales, so lawyers who participated in the tobacco deal will not reap the same windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
With this deal, Volkswagen could reduce the harm it caused by dispersing excessive amounts of nitrogen oxide, an irritant to the lungs, and provide full compensation to its customers, plus an additional several thousand dollars in cash. Furthermore, it incorporates a $20 million reimbursement to the National Association of Attorneys General.
Conclusion
Because Volkswagen has issued a stop sale order for the affected models, which must be recalled and repaired, dealers have been unable to market vehicles to the auctions, the general public, or other dealers. This has resulted in cash being held in inventory when revenue is essential for businesses to remain profitable. Volkswagen has tampered with its reputation as people are now cautious about buying their vehicles.
There is currently a stigma attached to all Volkswagen automobiles, which has resulted in a decline in the values of such vehicles. All of these losses directly result from Volkswagen’s dishonest behavior in this matter. Because of all the losses Volkswagen has made over the years due to the countless lawsuits filed against them, the company only hopes things will improve and steer away from making such a mistake again.
You can also read:
