Investors looking for billions of dollars in damages from Volkswagen were given a boost yesterday when a German court ruled an independent auditor ought to be appointed to examine the automaker’s emissions scandal.
Volkswagen’s (VW) main investors, the Porsche-Piech families and the state of Lower Saxony, had blocked demands by the DSW and SdK investor lobby groups for a special auditor to check out its cheating of U.S. diesel engine tests.
However a local court in Celle, stated on Wednesday such an auditor should be appointed in a decision that is lawfully binding and can not be appealed by the automaker.
Quickly after the “Dieselgate” scandal broke in September 2015, VW employed U.S. law office Jones Day and advisory firm Deloitte to examine the situations of its misconduct and who was accountable.
Although VW had vowed to improve transparency, it never released the findings which was used as the foundation for a $4.3 billion settlement with the United States Justice Department.
“This is an exceptionally good day for the VW shareholders who have lost a great deal of money in the wake of the diesel scandal,” DSW Vice President Klaus Nieding stated. “At last, light will be shed on the darkness that has protected the automaker for so long.”
Volkswagen said in an emailed statement that it had remembered the court decision, which it described as “unfounded”, including it would thoroughly consider more actions.
The auditor will likewise take a look at when VW’s leading management board initially discovered of the test cheating and whether it revealed the financial damage to investors without delay.
