Volkswagen wants to overturn the US judgment in the emissions scandal

Volkswagen is taking another explosive legal dispute over the emissions scandal to the US Supreme Court. The car company filed a motion to review the case with the US Supreme Court on Tuesday. VW suffered a serious legal defeat against the state of Ohio in June, which could possibly lead to further sanctions for systematic exhaust gas manipulation in diesel cars. The company hopes the ruling will be overturned by the Supreme Court. VW is of the opinion that the claims of individual districts and states such as Ohio have already been compensated for by the penalties and compensation that the company had to pay for violating the nationwide US Clean Air Act. Several other US courts have come to this assessment in similar cases. VW has already booked costs of more than 30 billion euros because of the emissions scandal - most of them for fines and compensation payments in the USA. However, it is unclear whether the US Supreme Court will deal with the case. Ohio is also just one of several legal scenes where VW is still grappling with the legacy of the diesel affair. In January, the automaker had already turned on the Supreme Court over similar lawsuits in two districts in the states of Florida and Utah. In September 2015, under pressure from the US environmental authorities, VW admitted that it had manipulated the exhaust technology of diesel cars for years with special software. Actually, the processing of the scandal after compromises with vehicle owners and authorities in the USA was long considered complete. However, due to a decision by an appeals court in June 2020, VW must continue to deal with proceedings for possible additional penalties. It is not entirely clear to what extent this will again result in greater financial risks. On the basis of regional catalogs of fines, horrific penalties could be threatened. In legal circles in the vicinity of the group, however, the outstanding cases are no more than charges in the double-digit million range. From VW's point of view, the proceedings also deal with fundamental legal issues that could lead to regulatory chaos that poses dangers for the entire automotive industry. The demands of individual states and districts, which go beyond the comparisons already concluded at the national level, would "seriously impair the ability of the US environmental agency EPA to regulate car emissions," said VW. In their application to the US Supreme Court, the group’s lawyers describe lawsuits like the Ohio’s as "unprecedented" and contrary to current jurisprudence.