2023-08-03 17:01:16
The owner of a VW Touran bought in 2013 obtained the cancellation of his contract before the Geneva courts. In question, a vehicle with nitrogen oxide emissions outside the homologation standards. AMAG contests this decision.
“I’ve been waiting for this decision for eight years,” says the unfortunate owner of this Touran 1.6 TDI. Convinced by the ecological and health arguments of AMAG sellers, he acquired this Diesel model in 2013.
But when two years later, pinched by the American authorities, Volkswagen admits having cheated on the nitrogen oxide emissions on nearly eleven million vehicles in the world and that his is one of them, the Genevan feels betrayed and has only one thing in mind: to get rid of it.
“Compensate the wronged owners”
It is therefore the relief brought to him on Wednesday by the Court of Justice of the canton of Geneva, confirming a previous cantonal decision once morest which AMAG had appealed.
The Touran, despite its software and hardware update by Volkswagen in 2017, still has one flaw: its nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions far exceed homologation standards. According to an expert commissioned as part of the procedure at DTC, the NOx emissions, which were measured three times, were each time greater than 230 mg/km, whereas the standard is set at 180 mg/km .
The cancellation of the contract is therefore justified, considered the judges. The judgment underlines that driving such a vehicle which does not respect the technical orders makes its owner “likely to commit an offence”.
An argument on which Jacques Roulet, the owner’s lawyer, rebounded: “Today, there are still potentially tens of thousands of Swiss who drive vehicles which are not up to standard and who potentially would commit offences”, a- he explained
Jacques Roulet calls for compensation for the 350 injured customers he still represents and for all the Swiss owners concerned, “as has been the case in other countries”.
A unique case?
Questioned by the RTS, AMAG said it was studying the option of a final appeal before the Federal Court, despite the restricted path offered to it in this case by the subsidiary constitutional complaint. The importer contests both the expert’s report and the Court’s decision: “This is an individual case for which a judgment is rendered on the basis of a legally incorrect expert report. Its erroneous results are not transferable to other parties. ‘other vehicles’, judges the group.
Jacque Roulet, for his part, considers the decision already enforceable. It orders AMAG to take back the Touran, to reimburse the customer at the new price deducted from a mileage allowance, for a total of more than 18,000 francs, to pay him costs totaling 8,000 francs and to bear the of justice of the two procedures.
What regarding the other 130,000?
Why then not individually test the vehicles of the other 350 plaintiffs to win their case? It would be too long and expensive, answers Jacques Roulet, who articulates the figure of 15,000 francs per expertise. The lawyer deplores the impossibility of carrying out “class actions” in Switzerland: “If we had been able to do it within the framework of a collective action, this case would have an automatic effect on the others”, explains- he.
Asked by the RTS, the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) replied that in view of the documents at its disposal, it had “no reason to doubt the conformity of similar models”.
Reference documents for the EU and Switzerland were produced by its German counterpart, the Kraftfahrtbundesamt (KBA), including the validation of corrective measures for EA189 engines. According to the technical ordinances, checks are allowed for 5 years or 100,000 kilometers following the first entry into circulation, but OFROU has not carried out any, specifies its spokesperson.
Pascal Jeannerat
Information developed in the 7:30 p.m. of August 3, 2023
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