Dieselgate: a first French customer compensated up to €4,000
So far, there had been no compensation in France from the Volkswagen group under the dieselgate. But things are changing: a client has received €4,000 in compensation from...
24/03/2022
So far, there had been no compensation in France from the Volkswagen group under the dieselgate. But things are moving: a client has received €4,000 in compensation from the German giant.
The thousands of French Volkswagen customers affected by dieselgate could see the decision rendered by the French courts very favorably. According to RTL, a client has indeed won her case against Volkswagen, which must reimburse her legal fees and pay her compensation of €4,000. It is quite simply the first French conviction on an individual basis, while group actions have been looming for several years now, in particular under the impetus of consumer defense associations.
The Court of Appeal of Pau thus validates a decision which could go to Cassation, but which, in any case, opens the way to these thousands of owners of vehicles equipped with impacted diesel engines. The three-cylinder 1.2, and the four-cylinder 1.6 and 2.0 TDI, in Euro 5 pollution standard, are particularly concerned.
Until now, the German group did not have to compensate French customers. Indeed, Volkswagen recently sealed an agreement in Germany to close the legal case. Some 260,000 customers will thus be compensated between 1,350 and 6,257 euros (depending on the vehicle, its mileage/age, and the engine,) for a total of 830 million euros. The only condition to benefit from it is to be tax resident in Germany. The French are therefore excluded from the compensation scheme, but with this unprecedented decision, things could quickly change.