A German court stated that the Volkswagen Group is liable to pay its investors $9 billion (8,2 billion euros) in damage claims over its emissions scandal.
The regional court in Brunswick near VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters has registered a total of about 1,400 lawsuits, as reported by Autonews. The court said some 750 lawsuits came in on Monday alone, which was the first business day following the one-year anniversary of “Dieselgate”.
The Brunswick court had to bring in extra staff in order to process all the suits submitted by shareholders – themselves concerned that Sept 18th may have been the deadline to file.
This flood of new shareholder lawsuits in Germany only adds to the automaker’s legal troubles, as VW is far from resolving all the issues generated by the 11 million diesel vehicles equipped with software that cheats during emissions tests.
Also, it’s worth keeping in mind that VW has already agreed to pay no less than $16.5 billion to settle lawsuits by American authorities and car owners.
German shareholders became angry when stock price dropped 35% in the two trading days following the disclosure made by US regulators about the “defeat device” software.
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