Volkswagen's legal issues continues
Legal probing into the diesel emissions scandal will continue even after Volkswagen agreed to huge US settlement payouts.
As reported by our sister site, Business Review USA, VW has announced that it will shell out $10 billion to buy back affected vehicles from customers, plus another $2.7 billion in environmental fines and $2 billion for eco-car promotion.
There are around 475,000 affected vehicles in the US, and a huge 8.5 million across Europe. As such, EU regulators are calling for settlements similar to those which American consumers have received.
The scandal emerged last year when Volkswagen was forced to admit that it had used technology to cheat its emissions tests, meaning that vehicles were not as economical as the company statistics claimed.
While the $10 billion settlement must be approved by a federal judge, it has been signed off by the justice department. According to Financial Times, Deputy Attorney-General Sally Yates said of the continued criminal probe that prosecutors were “looking at multiple companies and multiple individuals.
“The settlements do not address any potential criminal liability, although I can assure you our criminal investigation is active and ongoing. We’ll follow the facts wherever they go and make a determination about whether any companies or individuals should be criminally charged.”
Volkswagen has been forced to put aside 16.2 billion euros to deal with the global costs of the issue, although with other manufacturers along the company's supply chain also being investigated, these funds may prove insufficient.