Five years after the outbreak of the «Dieselgate», the sentence of the class action initiated in 2017 by Altroconsumo in Italy was published, together with the consumer organizations Test-Achats in Belgium, OCU in Spain, DECO Protests in Portugal gathered in the Euroconsumers network. The sum that the car manufacturer will have to repay exceeds 200 million.
–
Volkswagen has been found responsible to have installed banned software on EA189 engines in order to reduce NOx (Nitrogen Oxide) emissions during homologation tests. The car manufacturer will have to compensate a total of 63,037 consumers for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage, paid in 3,300 euros plus interest to each admitted member (50% to those who bought used cars or resold the car between 8/2009 and on 9/2015). In addition, Volkswagen will have a duty to reimburse legal and advertising costs.
–
–
“David beat Goliath and proved once more that union is really strength – says Federico Cavallo, of Altroconsumo-. We strongly believed in this action, which has managed to bring together more than 70,000 people in Italy. Almost 90% of them have been admitted by the court to the class, and now, despite all the difficulties, complexity and length of the proceedings, they will be able to receive the fair reimbursement from Volkswagen. After American, German and Spanish consumers, and after 5 years of waiting, the time has finally come for Italians to get justice. Without forgetting the more than half a million people who did not take part in the class action, but who are in similar objective conditions, towards which we will immediately strive to find a way to guarantee for them a result in line with the sentence “.
–
“This is a historic achievement – continues Cavallo – which adds a very important piece to the history of class action in our country: this tool is not yet fully known and used, certainly perfectible and for this reason evolving both in national and European legislation. A tool, however, which proves to be one of the most effective and important weapons for protecting the rights of individual consumers who, by putting themselves together, can face the major players in the global market. We are proud, like Altroconsumo, to have made a decisive contribution to carry out this action to the end and achieve this result in favor of so many people “.
–
All participants in the class action they will be contacted in the next few days by Altroconsumo to receive further information regarding the next steps of the compensation.
–
–
July 7, 2021 (change July 7, 2021 | 18:36)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
– .
