Diesel scandal: German environmental organisation achieves victory in court

The Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), a German environmental, nature and consumer protection organisation, has won its case against the Federal Republic of Germany and the Volkswagen Group before the Schleswig Administrative Court. According to the verdict, VW has been using illegal defeat devices for more than eight years after the diesel scandal was uncovered.

The court ruled that approvals granted by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in 2016 for 62 different older vehicle models with the EA189 engine were unlawful. Approval should not have been granted because using a so-called thermal window in exhaust gas recirculation is an unauthorised defeat device. “Exhaust gas purification in diesel vehicles must function between minus 15 degrees Celsius and plus 40 degrees,” said the judges. Switch-off devices that reduce or completely switch off exhaust gas purification below 10 degrees Celsius after 15 minutes of idling or above an altitude of 1,000 metres are inadmissible.

The DUH is now calling for an immediate order for hardware retrofitting or for the cars to be taken off the road with compensation for customers at the car manufacturer’s expense. It allegedly concerns “millions of diesel cars from Volkswagen, Seat and Audi.” The DUH assumes that there are around 8.6 million diesel vehicles from German, European and international diesel manufacturers that are “still in operation in Germany with similarly unauthorised defeat devices.”

The full reasons for the judgement are not yet available. The decision is also not yet final. Due to the fundamental importance of the case, the court has already authorised an appeal to the Schleswig-Holstein Higher Administrative Court and a further appeal to the Federal Administrative Court.

duh.de, schleswig-holstein.de (both in German)