EU Urges Volkswagen to Compensate All Diesel Scandal Customers Across Bloc -- Update
September 28 2021 - 9:40AM
Dow Jones News
By Mauro Orru
The European Union has called on Volkswagen AG to compensate all
customers that have been affected by the diesel scandal across the
27 member states, in a move aimed at averting further years of
litigation.
Consumer protection cooperation authorities, responsible for
enforcing EU consumer protection laws in the bloc, said Tuesday
that the German car maker had only agreed to compensate consumers
residing in Germany at the time of the car purchase, urging the
company to also reach out to customers in other countries.
"The CPC network welcomes that Volkswagen decided to settle with
large parts of the consumers that were residing at the time of the
purchase in Germany. It calls upon the company to reach out to
consumers in all member states that are still seeking redress, in
order to find appropriate solutions and to close this chapter
avoiding further years of litigation," the CPC network said in a
statement.
Volkswagen didn't respond to a request for comment.
The announcement from CPC authorities, coordinated by the
European Commission, comes after they concluded that Volkswagen's
commercial practices related to the marketing of diesel cars
equipped with illegal exhaust gas manipulation systems violated EU
consumer protection law.
The diesel scandal, one of the largest frauds by a European
company in recent history, resulted in Volkswagen pleading guilty
in 2017 in the U.S. to settle criminal charges for around $4.3
billion. The company also agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of
U.S. owners of Volkswagen and Audi vehicles billions of dollars in
compensation.
The commission, the bloc's executive arm, said Volkswagen saw
voluntary payments to European consumers residing outside of
Germany as unjustified since affected cars have been altered to
comply with legal requirements.
"There have been court rulings exposing Volkswagen's unfair
treatment of consumers, and yet the car maker is not willing to
work with consumer organizations to find appropriate solutions for
consumers," said Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders.
"As I wrote to the company last year, not only consumers
residing in Germany, but all consumers need to be compensated," he
said.
Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 28, 2021 10:25 ET (14:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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