The Court has dismissed claims by VW shareholders against Bosch

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 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.