Investors sue VW, claim £8.2b

Investors have sued Volkswagen (VW) for about
 £8.2 billion  in damages for alleged diesel scandal

This is the first trial in Germany, of
the carmaker, which plaintiffs argue that company should have come clean
sooner about falsifying emissions data.

VW shares crashed after disclosure in 2015 that its diesel technology emitted illegal levels of pollution.

“VW should have told the market that they cheated,” Andreas Tilp, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the court.

“We believe that VW should have told the
market no later than June 2008 that they could not make the technology
that they needed in the United States,” he told the Braunschweig higher
regional court.

Shareholders representing 1,670 claims
are seeking compensation for the near 40% slide in Volkswagen’s share
price triggered by the scandal, which broke in September 2015 and has
cost the firm €27.4bn in penalties and fines so
far.

The legal action has been brought by the Deka investment fund, which is being used a template for a further 1,600 lawsuits.

The case involves about 50 lawyers, and
interest in the hearing is so great that it had to be moved from the
court house to a nearby conference centre.

In a short statement to the BBC, VW
pointed out that the “lawsuit is solely and exclusively about whether
Volkswagen complied with its disclosure obligations toward shareholders
and the capital markets”.

The company said it was “confident” it had carried out its obligations correctly.

The court case is expected to take at least until next year to be fully decided.

Former executives from VW, Porsche and their sister company Audi are under criminal investigation in Germany.

The company itself has already been fined
€1bn by German prosecutors over its diesel emissions scandal. It has
also paid a fine of $4.3bn in the US to resolve criminal and civil
penalties.

VW has admitted its responsibility for the diesel crisis.