Bordeaux (AFP) – A French court has ordered Volkswagen to pay 100,000 euros ($117,000) on charges of “consumer harm” over the Dieselgate emissions fraud, an advocacy group said Tuesday, as around 950,000 clients in France await a class-action ruling on compensation.
The German automaker admitted in 2015 it had sold 11 million vehicles equipped with devices designed to cheat environmental regulations by lowering cars’ emissions during testing. Among the dozens of lawsuits spurred by the scandal, France’s CLCV consumer protection association joined a claim filed by a car owner in Pau, southwest France, alleging “harm to the general interests of consumers”.
In a May 5 ruling seen by AFP, the court said VW “failed in its obligation of conformity” by selling nearly 950,000 vehicles equipped with the devices in France between 2007 and 2015. “It’s an encouraging step for the class action” lawsuit to be heard next year by a court in Soissons, eastern France, said Francois Carlier, director of the CLCV.
However, Volkswagen Group France called it “an isolated ruling whose reasoning is open to challenge”. The company said it believes that no actual harm to French consumers was shown or in fact suffered, adding the ruling had yet to enter force. VW also faces a separate aggravated fraud case over the scandal in Paris, with a date for the trial to be set in December.
© 2024 AFP
