In the Dieselgate case, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected the appeal of Volkswagen, which hoped to cancel the lawsuits in France following a procedure already intervened in Germany.
Seven years after the discovery of the Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen is still subject to legal proceedings. And it’s not going to stop. In France, the manufacturer was recently indicted for “deception on a product endangering the health of humans or animals”. If she hoped to fall through the cracks due to a double procedure, the brand will finally be prosecuted in France as planned, according to the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal.
Attempt to cancel proceedings rejected
Volkswagen had indeed filed a motion to quash the French prosecution, due to the global procedure already completed in 2018 in Germany. At the time, the German group had paid a fine of one billion euros, including in particular vehicles marketed in France. As a reminder, the Dieselgate affair, which broke out in 2015, affects 11 million rigged diesel vehicles in total.
According to the manufacturer’s lawyer, Me Huc-Morel, ” double conviction should be prohibited in accordance with the ‘ne bis in idem’ principle (“one cannot be judged twice for the same facts”) applicable in the present case “. But the Paris Court of Appeal is not of this opinion, and on Wednesday January 19 rejected Volkswagen’s appeal. The manufacturer has already announced that it will appeal to the Court of Cassation.
Photo : Volkswagen.
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