German automobile manufacturer, Volkswagen, is deep in troubled waters as it battles 1,400 legal cases from investors claiming a total of 8.2 billion euros in compensation over its emissions cheating scandal, the state court in Brunswick said in a statement on September 21, 2016.
Investors of the German Giant car maker have filed 1,400 lawsuits seeking 8.2 billion euros in damages over the emissions cheating scandal, a German court said Wednesday, adding to the embattled car giant’s legal woes, AFP reports.
They said the automaker failed to disclose details of the case in a timely way, leading them to lose money as the group’s share price plunged by 40 percent in two days after the crisis erupted last September.
The $9.1 billion in claims are mostly made up of “bundled” actions containing lawsuits from multiple plaintiffs, many of them private investors, according to the court in Brunswick, close to VW’s Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony headquarters. The US government and several German state governments are also among the claimants.
Another claimant is Blackrock, the world’s largest fund manager, and a group of institutional shareholders who are suing VW for 2 billion euros.
A spokesman for Volkswagen reiterated the carmaker’s position that it “continues to believe that we comprehensively fulfilled our obligations under capital markets law and that the claims are unjustified.”
There was little reaction on the Frankfurt stock market to the news, with Volkswagen shares gaining around 0.7 percent by just after 1330 GMT.
Volkswagen’s troubles began in September 2015 when it admitted installing so-called “defeat devices” in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide, which increase exhaust treatment when the car detects it is undergoing regulatory tests.
The software deactivates the emissions system when the car is on the road, leading to levels of harmful nitrogen oxides in the exhaust many times higher than allowed.
Most of the cars affected bear the Volkswagen logo, but vehicles made by the group’s Audi, Skoda and Seat brands were also among those equipped with the software.
During talks with a top EU official on Wednesday, Volkswagen pledged to ensure that all cars across the bloc were fixed by autumn 2017, the European Commission said in a statement.
“Today Volkswagen committed to a plan of action across the EU which is an important step towards a fair treatment of consumers,” justice and consumer protection commissioner Vera Jourova said.
During the talks, the car giant pledged “to ensure all vehicles are repaired by autumn 2017,” and to supply consumers with a “proof of conformity” certificate, Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said.
VW faces a string of legal claims and investigations around the world.
The group has set aside 18 billion euros to pay for the legal costs of the crisis and has so far agreed to pay $15 billion in compensation and fines in the United States alone.
