Volkswagen is going to be back in Federal Court in Sydney on Thursday to deal with a class action suit over the diesel emissions scandal, after being asked by the judge to have experts fly to Australia to inform the legal team representing nearly 100,000 clients.
Volkswagen has regularly said owners of cars with diesel motor that cheat emissions tests are not entitled to payment since Australia has different regulations to the United States, where 470,000 owners recently were granted about $5,000 each.
Judge Foster, who is hearing the case in Australia, has criticized Volkswagen’s legal team at the previous April hearing since the automaker was yet to supply important info, such as the real levels of emissions from the afflicted Volkswagen diesel vehicles in real-world driving conditions.
Volkswagen “obviously think [Australia] is some kind of backwater, even though it’s a well developed democracy with a good judicial system,” Judge Foster informed the hearing in April. “So if they think that, they’re about to get a huge shock.”
At the center of the disagreement is the distinction in the emissions of particular Volkswagen diesel cars in test conditions, when the emissions system is disabled.
Volkswagen has admitted fitting so-called “defeat devices” to over 11 million vehicles internationally and is now in the procedure of recalling them for upgrades and software application modifications. Roughly 100,000 vehicles in Australia are impacted.
