2023-06-27 10:43:00
A recent ruling by the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) also gives new impetus to the diesel lawsuits of those affected in Austria. Consumers are therefore also entitled to compensation if illegal but officially approved defeat devices with thermal windows were installed in their vehicles. In principle, the affected car buyers are then entitled to compensation of 5 to 15 percent of the purchase price, the BGH ruled. An expert opinion is not required for this.
However, what this means for procedures in which expert opinions certify higher damage remains open for the time being. The Linz lawyer Michael Poduschka considers it likely that the range of 5 to 15 percent of the purchase price specified by the BGH represents a lower limit. If there is an expert opinion that determines a higher damage for the time of the car purchase, this must be taken into account when assessing the compensation.
“The BGH judgment is sensational because, for the first time in Central Europe, a national supreme court has awarded damages to prevent perpetrators from violating European protective laws,” said Poduschka of the Austria Press Agency. “In times of industrialized fraud, this was long overdue.” In the diesel scandal, Poduschka is conducting around 1,000 individual proceedings once morest Volkswagen and VW dealers and is also representing the Association for Consumer Information in more than 10 class action lawsuits involving around 10,000 victims.
The chief lawyer of the consumer protection association, Peter Kolba, also sees new impetus in the diesel lawsuits following the BGH decision. Owners of cars with the VW EA 288 engine and of Daimler can now also take part in the collection campaigns of the consumer protection association in Germany free of charge.
VW and the subsidiary Audi told the Austria Press Agency that the BGH had not made any determinations as to the existence of a claim for reimbursement of any reduced value. The appellate courts must now clarify whether this claim exists. In the opinion of Volkswagen and Audi, the entitlement requirements for damages are not met in either case, so the lawsuits should be dismissed. Volkswagen and Audi would assume that the appellate courts will reject a claim for reimbursement of the reduction in value.
Ex-Audi boss Stadler convicted
Meanwhile, the Munich Regional Court has sentenced ex-Audi boss Rupert Stadler to a suspended prison sentence of one year and nine months. The court found him guilty of fraud on Tuesday.
The two co-accused – the former head of engine development and later Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz and the engineer P. – received suspended sentences from the court for fraud.
These are the first criminal judgments in Germany in the diesel scandal uncovered in 2015, which shook the entire industry and caused billions in damage. Hatz and the engineer P. had confessed to having taken care of the manipulation of diesel engines. In doing so, they complied with emission values on the test stand, but throttled the emission control on the road. Stadler has admitted that it was too late to stop the sale of manipulated cars The judgments are not yet final. (kle/ag.)
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