Volkswagen confirmed on Tuesday it has accepted to pay $69 million to settle New Jersey state diesel emissions claims, among the last major outstanding diesel legal concerns the automaker dealt in the United States.
Volkswagen has previously accepted to spend over $750 million to fix numerous state environmental and customer claims. In overall, the automaker has accepted to spend as much as $25 billion in the United States to deal with claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers and used to redeem about 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles.
New Jersey’s attorney general and the automaker verified the cases had been settled in a court filing on Tuesday. New Jersey had stated previously that VW could have dealt with maximum charges of over $1.2 billion in the state.
“Volkswagen’s contract with New Jersey deals with one of the most significant staying legal exposures related to the diesel matter in the United States. It completely settles the state’s legacy consumer and environmental claims and is another important step forward for our company and our shareholders,” stated automaker’s spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie informed the state got roughly one-and-a-half times per vehicle the quantity paid any other state settling with automaker for misleading practices.
“The company put market share ahead of stability and profit ahead of lawful compliance, and we held them accountable,” Christie stated.
In March, the automaker accepted to pay $157 million to settle environmental claims from 10 other U.S. states. In last year, the German automaker reached a $603 million customer fraud settlement with 44 U.S. states, also leaving out New Jersey.
