Berlin: Volkswagen AG faces Germany’s biggest investor lawsuit as attorneys filed complaints totalling €8.2 billion (Dh33.5 billion, $9.2 billion) related to the diesel emissions scandal that wiped out a third of the company’s market value.
About 1,400 lawsuits are currently pending at a court in Braunschweig, about 32 kilometres from Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg headquarters, a judicial spokeswoman said Wednesday. Investors say they lost money on VW shares because the company was slow in disclosing the emissions-cheating issue.
Investors have lined up to sue in Germany, where VW shares plunged in the first two trading days after the September 18 disclosure of the emissions scandal by US regulators. Monday was the first business day after the anniversary of the scandal and investors had feared they needed to sue within a year of the company’s admission that it had equipped about 11 million diesel vehicles with software to cheat on pollution tests.
The amount is less than the €10.7 billion that had been expected based on lawyers’ statements last week, but more suits could still trickle in because of uncertainty about when the deadline expires. The court may need about four weeks to register all the complaints, it said.
The US government, which is investigating the company for possible criminal charges and hasn’t approved a fix for the tainted vehicles, is also among the investors suing and its case was valued at €30 million.
Unfounded claims
Volkswagen, in a statement, reiterated its view that it complied with capital-market rules and that the claims are unfounded.
Volkswagen shares rose 1.2 per cent to 119.75 euros at 12:38pm in Frankfurt trading. They’re still down 11 per cent this year.
“The number isn’t surprising. We’ve already seen some of the cases,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst at Intl Strategy & Investment UK Ltd, who rates the stock as “buy.” “It will be difficult for the plaintiffs to prove that VW acted intentionally here.”
A law firm separately sued Porsche Automobil Holding SE and VW in a court in Stuttgart on behalf of 263 investors seeking a combined €547 million. Porsche Holding, which is controlled by the Porsche-Piech family, owns a majority of Volkswagen’s voting stock and is effectively its parent company.
In an interim ruling in some previous cases filed in Porsche’s hometown, the court has said it will review whether to set aside secrecy rules that the two companies were invoking as part of their defence, Andreas Tilp, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an emailed statement.
Porsche holding spokesman Albrecht Bamler said he will comment on the case later Wednesday.
