VW emissions scandal
BGH awards residual damages to new car buyers
2/21/2022, 6:07 p.m
Anyone who bought a new car from VW that was affected by the diesel scandal has received good news from Karlsruhe. Even if a claim for damages was not filed against VW in good time, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that car buyers are entitled to residual damages.
Owners of a diesel affected by the emissions scandal who did not sue VW in time can still be entitled to financial compensation. The basic requirement is that the car was bought new. Then Volkswagen can be obliged to pay so-called residual damages if the claims are already statute-barred, as the Karlsruhe Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled. (Az. VIa ZR 8/21 and others)
In two cases from Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate, the highest civil judges ruled that VW not only has to hand over the pure profit from the sale. VW had to pay residual damages and could not deduct any manufacturing costs for the cars, because the company had enriched itself “in bad faith,” said the presiding judge, Eva Menges.
Instead, it works like the actual compensation: VW has to refund most of the purchase price. For this, the customer must give up his car and have the kilometers driven taken into account.
Is the lawsuit worth it?
Whether a lawsuit for residual damages is worthwhile depends heavily on how intensively the diesel was driven and whether you want to part with the car at all. The period for this is ten years from the date of purchase. A lawsuit is therefore only an option for diesel owners who bought their car between February 2012 and September 2015. That’s when the scandal came to light.
After the judgments, VW stated that, in its opinion, the BGH had not taken into account the costs incurred by the company. A claim for residual damages can only be “based on the profit that Volkswagen retains after deducting the costs of manufacturing a new VW vehicle”.
In the case of used cars, there is basically no right to residual damages, as the BGH decided a week and a half ago.