Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Diesel scandal lawsuits dismissed
Bosch doesn’t have to pay for VW errors
Not only car manufacturer Volkswagen, but also supplier Bosch is suspected of fraud in the diesel scandal. Plaintiffs are demanding compensation from the industrial technology group. The lawsuits are now finally dismissed.
In the diesel scandal, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has finally dismissed claims for damages by VW shareholders against the supplier Bosch. The shareholders had accused Bosch of having aided the belated ad-hoc announcement by the automaker about the manipulation of diesel engines. As a result, the shareholders suffered high price losses, for which Bosch, as a supplier of the illegal shutdown software, is also liable. Like the District Court of Ludwigsburg and the Regional Court of Stuttgart, the BGH rejected the allegation of state aid. In total, the BGH decided on nine shareholder actions.
The sample case concerned a shareholder who had acquired preferred shares in Volkswagen AG in December 2013 for a good 12,000 euros. VW had been aware of the illegal defeat device since 2011 at the latest, argued the plaintiff. On September 3, 2015, Volkswagen admitted to US authorities that they had installed a defeat device in their diesel vehicles with which the emission values were only observed on the test bench. In September 2015, the plaintiff sold the shares for around 8,500 euros.
A few days later, Volkswagen AG informed the capital market for the first time about the use of the software through ad hoc announcements. The software for the defeat device was developed by Bosch. The plaintiff therefore accuses Bosch of aiding and abetting the late ad hoc announcement. Because Bosch had the same level of knowledge as VW itself. The supplier also knew that the manipulation would not only affect sales of the vehicles, but also the capital market. That is why Bosch indirectly harmed the shareholders and had to pay its price loss of around 3500 euros.
BGH sees no aid from Bosch
However, the BGH finally denied any aid to the omitted or belated ad hoc notification. There are certainly indications that Bosch was not innocent when it supplied the software to VW, with the help of which the diesel engines only kept the emission values on the test bench. But even then, there is no factual connection that Bosch promoted a belated ad hoc notification to shareholders. In addition to the model lawsuit, a further eight lawsuits by shareholders were dismissed.
The 2nd Civil Senate of the BGH expressly pointed out on Tuesday that its judgment was not associated with an opinion as to whether VW should be made accusations under capital market law. VW is confronted with shareholder lawsuits with a total volume of around nine billion euros due to losses in exchange rates. The Higher Regional Court of Braunschweig has been negotiating a model lawsuit by the investment company Deka Investment der Sparkassen for almost three years.
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