A court in Braunschweig has ordered VW to pay an Austrian the purchase price for his VW back – after deducting a usage fee and against return of the vehicle.
This was announced by the consumer protection association (VSV). Decisive for the judgment was a fundamental decision by the Austrian Supreme Court in mid-May, according to which VW buyers with an engine that only partially cleans the exhaust gas can reclaim the purchase price. The judgment is not yet final, VW will appeal against it, it says in a Company’s response to the verdict. VSV chief lawyer Peter Kolba no longer expects the decision to be changed in the instances, since the OGH judgment was clearly failed based on the new software. Otherwise, the supreme court would have had to recognize that the original defect had been remedied with the software update, says the vehicle manufacturer. The court in Braunschweig, on the other hand, interpreted Austrian law “incorrectly”. “The district court of Braunschweig misjudges the applicable standards of Austrian law”, which were defined in the OGH judgment. From VW’s point of view, there are no longer any illegal defeat devices, so the buyers are not entitled to compensation submitted to the LG Braunschweig. Austrian law applies because the vehicles were taken over in Austria and the damage from the diesel fraud occurred in Austria. In the current verdict, VW has to pay around 11,500 euros including interest. If VW does not compare itself afterwards, there are now more than 400 comparable individual judgments.
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