Volkswagen reached a “comprehensive agreement” with the German consumer federation VZBV with relation to a compensation settlement over the company’s 2015 emission’s scandal, a court in the central German city of Braunschweig declared on Friday.
Some 260,000 German consumers who were affected by the incident will get between €1,350 and €6,257 ($1,484 and $6,879), depending on the model and age of the car. The automaker plans to pay a total of €830 million ($915 million) in compensation — significantly lower than the $15.3 billion a United States judge ordered the company to pay American consumers.
The consumers can then decide to whether they should accept the settlement or keep fighting for more money in individual lawsuits. People who purchased their cars after December 31, 2015 — months after the scandal was exposed — will not be compensated.
Furthermore, the automaker will take on the full costs for the settlement and the legal advisers for the consumers. An ombudsman office will be set up to settle potential disputes.
The VZBV, who submitted the class action lawsuit against the automaker in September, stated after the settlement was declared that its action for declaratory judgment will now be terminated.
“The VZBV has argued for more. But in the context of the hard negotiations, the result is the maximum achievable,” stated VZBV board member Klaus Müller.
