VW Dieselgate: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sues Volkswagen AG
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it has initiated legal action against Volkswagen AG in the Federal Court of Australia. Volkswagen AG (VWAG) and Volkswagen Group Australia Pty Ltd (VGA) are being sued by ACCC for misleading the public with respect to diesel vehicle emission claims.
The ACCC has alleged that VWAG and VGA mislead the public by claiming that their vehicles were compliant with Australian and European standards and Australian regulations. However, the presence of the infamous defeat device in 57,000 vehicles proved otherwise. Also, VGA advertised and promoted the vehicles to be environment friendly and low emission which wasn't true.
The illegal defeat device, equipped in some Volkswagen diesel vehicles, can detect when the vehicle is being subjected to emission tests. Under those circumstances it reduces the emissions to within the legally permissible limits. Once it detects that the test is over, the engine goes back to the regular driving mode which was found to emit 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide (NOx).
"Consumers rightly expect that their vehicle's emissions would operate as advertised during their day-to-day use and we allege that this was not the case with more than 57,000 vehicles sold in Australia by Volkswagen over a five-year period," said ACCC chairman Rod Sims.
"These allegations involve extraordinary conduct of a serious and deliberate nature by a global corporation and its Australian subsidiary misleading consumers and the Australian public. We expect higher standards of behaviour from all companies that supply to Australian consumers," he further added.
In the U.S., it has been reported that the settlement for the dieselgate scandal will cost Volkswagen AG $15 billion. Recently Bosch had refuted dieselgate involvement allegations as unfounded.
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