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| Dieselgate is now 'part of the group's history' (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL) |
Braunschweig (Germany) (AFP) - A case pitting hundreds of thousands of owners of manipulated diesel cars demanding compensation opened against German car behemoth Volkswagen Monday, four years after the country's largest post-war industrial scandal erupted.
Around
450,000 people have joined a first-of-its-kind grouped proceeding, introduced
by lawmakers after the "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal broke
in 2015.
The first
hearing in what is likely to be a grinding, years-long trial began at 10 am
(0800 GMT) in Brunswick, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from VW headquarters
in the northern city of Wolfsburg. The second is planned for November 18.
Consumer
rights group VZBV, representing the plaintiffs, says the German carmaker
deliberately harmed buyers by installing motor control software that allowed
vehicles to pollute far more on the road than under lab conditions.
"I
would like Volkswagen to reimburse the purchase price" said Andreas
Sarcletti, a customer who had made the trip from nearby Hanover, "but I'm
worried the trial is going to last a very long time."
Uwe
Reinicke, who bought a manipulated vehicle in 2011, said "I don't think
it's right, the way Volkswagen treated us."
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VW fooled
authorities about the real level of harmful emissions from
its cars (AFP
Photo/THOMAS KIENZLE)
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"VW
ought to finally, properly admit that they lied," he added.
The trial
is Germany's largest so far in the tentacular diesel scandal, which last week
saw VW chief executive Herbert Diess charged with market manipulation over his
role.
50
questions for judges
"Several
regional tribunals have already found against Volkswagen" and granted
plaintiffs compensation, judge Michael Neef noted as the proceedings opened.
Alongside
the grouped proceeding, 61,000 individual lawsuits have been filed in Germany,
but Brunswick may not follow those earlier rulings.
Of the
around 50 questions about the case judges must decide on, whether Volkswagen
"caused harm" by acting "dishonestly" will be "one of
the central, difficult questions," Neef added.
"We're
confident of our chances, since Volkswagen committed fraud," VZBV lawyer
Ralph Sauer told AFP ahead of the hearing.
VW lawyer
Martine de Lind van Wijngaarden countered that there was "no harm and no
basis to this claim" because "hundreds of thousands of cars are
used" on the roads without problem.
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A lot of
files to get through (AFP Photo/Ronny Hartmann)
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Judges said
that even if they find there was harm, the amount diesel owners receive in
compensation would be based on the present-day market value -- not the original
purchase price.
Every owner
registered in the trial will have to claim individually, even if the plaintiffs
were to win the case.
VW thinks a
final judgement could arrive in 2023 at the earliest, if the case is appealed
all the way to the Federal Court of Justice.
Individual
proceedings could then take at least another year -- in the court of first
instance.
By then,
the cars' market value will have further eroded, making a buyback cheaper for
the firm.
Instead,
the judges mentioned the possibility of a settlement, while allowing that such
talks "would not be easy" given duplicates and foreign residents on
the list of plaintiffs.
The VZBV
says it is "open" to an out-of-court settlement but "in that
case, VW would have to pay a significant sum after all," Mueller told AFP.
VW for its
part finds a mass settlement "hard to imagine".
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Most of
VW's fines payments have gone to the US (AFP Photo/Geoff Robins)
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30
billion euros
Since 2015,
when Volkswagen admitted to manipulating 11 million vehicles worldwide to fool
emissions tests, the scandal has cost the group over 30 billion euros ($33 billion)
in fines, compensation and legal costs.
Most of
that sum -- $22 billion -- has gone to the US, while in Germany VW has so far
paid just 2.3 billion euros spread across three fines.
Alongside
car owners, investors are claiming damages for losses they suffered when the
group's share price plummeted after it came clean.
And earlier
this week, chief executive Herbert Diess and supervisory board chief Hans
Dieter Poetsch were charged with market manipulation.
Former
chief executive Martin Winterkorn, who stepped down over the scandal, has been
also charged with fraud.
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The clouds
of scandal still haven't blown away (AFP Photo/Julian Stratenschulte)
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Away from
the legal battlegrounds, "dieselgate" has sped up the fuel's decline
from its status as lower-carbon alternative to petrol, favoured with government
subsidies.
In Germany,
its market share among new registrations has fallen from 46 to 33 percent. Car
bans are also looming in some city centres because of the level of nitrogen
oxides (NOx) emissions.
The diesel
scandal is "part of the group's history" just like the famous Beetle
and Golf models, says VW brand chief Ralf Brandstaetter.
"The
diesel crisis was a catalyst for our transformation," Brandstaetter told
AFP in a recent interview, pointing to VW's 30 billion euro investment in a new
electric range to "regain society's respect".
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