US Government Slaps VW With £13.5 Billion Emissions Cheating Lawsuit

by Benson Agoha / Technology

* VW Beetle (Credit: Getty)

As Volkwagen takes steps to put its house in order, something else was brewing in the offing across the pond.

On Monday, the U.S. government sued Volkswagen for installing emission evasion software on nearly 600,000 diesel cars, aimed at intentionally subverting clean-air regulations, resulting in excess harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

According to an Industry Week report, the civil penalties in the lawsuit could hit past £20 bn

(£13.5 bn), though the The Justice Department which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, did not specify a specific overall penalty it was seeking.

The complaint alleges that the big German automaker intentionally installed "defeat devices" on its diesel VWs, Audis and Porsches that met tough US environmental tests during official reviews, but spewed up to 40 times the legal levels of poisonous pollutants when on the road.

But it laid out per-car penalties of up to $37,500 (£25.500), and up to $2,750 (£1.900) per defeat device, which could take the cost of the suit for VW to well past $20 billion (£13.5 billion).

"Car manufacturers that fail to properly certify their cars and that defeat emission control systems breach the public trust, endanger public health and disadvantage competitors," said assistant attorney general John Cruden.

"The United States will pursue all appropriate remedies against Volkswagen to redress the violations of our nation’s clean air laws alleged in the complaint."

Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance at EPA, said the lawsuit would hold Volkswagen accountable and set the case on a "path to resolution."

"So far, recall discussions with the company have not produced an acceptable way forward," Giles said. "These discussions will continue in parallel with the federal court action."

Meanwhile, Volkswagen announced last month it was introducing rotation among staff as some of the measures to help it control oversights.

On Sunday, December 21, VW supervisory board Chief Hans Dieter Poetsch said in an interview with theWelt am Sonntag (The World On Sunday) Newspaper VW was to begin rotating staff to keep better tabs on its operations.

He said Employees in key roles will switch jobs more often than they currently do as a way of ensuring better checks and balances.

“The relevant employees will only stay a certain amount of time in a specific job and then change,” the quoted him as saying, adding “We will bolster checks, determine responsibilities in a clearer way and better implement technical supervision of procedures.”

 

He also said the new personnel plan was intended to break up long-standing structures that allowed rules to be broken in secret.

* Industry Week provided lead to this report.