Before the German Federal Court
Schweitzer is right in the diesel scandal
Thousands of diesel buyers outside Germany can once again hope for damages: Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled on Monday in a model case involving a Swiss customer that class action requirements had been met.
Publication date: 06/13/2022 at 21:21
Foreign diesel buyers have referred their claims against Volkswagen to online service provider Myright. Unlike the courts in Braunschweig before, BGH has now ruled that Myright meets all requirements for eventual collection of claims through class action.
German Financialright GmbH, which is behind Myright, does not have to demonstrate any special expertise in Swiss law. This means that the content of individual claims can now be examined.
Myright works against commission if successful and declares that even clients without statutory protection insurance bear no cost risk. According to VW, there are several class action lawsuits pending in German courts for a total of about 36,000 clients. These include two lawsuits of more than 2,000 Swiss and about 6,000 Slovenian clients.
Stefan Zimmermann of Myright has already spoken of a “milestone in consumer protection”. For Switzerland and Slovenia, the business model is certainly confirmed to the extent that “we can finally discuss with VW how much compensation the customer is actually entitled to”.
On the other hand, Volkswagen announced that in the specific case the lawsuit was expected to be dismissed at a later time. “Because according to Swiss law applicable to the case, the allegations made do not exist.” So far, no Swiss court has agreed to a claim for damages against Volkswagen.
But last November, a Geneva court ruled VW importer Amag for the first time and awarded compensation to a VW diesel car owner in Switzerland for tampering with emissions tests. Amag wanted to continue ruling.
The Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced a short time ago that it wants to end criminal proceedings against Volkswagen and Amage in connection with the diesel scandal. It lacked the basis for the indictment.
During the emissions scandal, millions of Volkswagen’s diesel cars were tampered with in a way that lowered pollutant emissions in official tests, but then polluted more in normal use than on test benches. About 175,000 car buyers and renters are said to have been affected by the rig in Switzerland.
(SDA)
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