Volkswagen has been slapped with a lawsuit in Germany that could pave the way for a European buyback scheme for its emissions cheating vehicles.
The lawsuit was filed by consumer rights organization myRight, who has set up a website where VW owners can sign up and ask to receive compensation from the automotive giant.
Reuters reports that more than 100,000 European owners have signed up and that U.S. law firm Hausfeld will pursue the individual claims.
Due to different legal rules in Europe, Volkswagen hasn’t been forced to compensate owners as it has in the United States. Instead, it is simply removing the illegal software that enabled its models to cheat emissions testing and claims that the scandal won’t have any affect on the value of the vehicles.
MyRight accuses the carmaker of breaching European Union law for selling vehicles with banned software and wants to force VW to buy back all of the affected vehicles at the original price. Approximately 8.5 million vehicles in Europe are involved in the scandal, compared to just over 500,000 in the United States.
In a statement, Volkswagen said: “We have taken note that myRight has announced the submission of diesel lawsuits for Jan. 3. The lawsuits have not yet been made available to us which is why we cannot comment on the contents at the moment.”
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