VW haftet für EA897evo von Audi

The Wolfsburg-based company's tactic of taking responsibility for the fraudulent software installed in its premium models 3.0l engines EA897evo The attempt to pass the blame on to the group's subsidiary Audi and thus get out of the affair did not work out at the Ulm Regional Court. VW is therefore also liable for Audi's EA897evo engine. The court nevertheless ordered Volkswagen to take back a VW Touareg with the engine in question. This means repayment of the purchase price of €45,967.67 less compensation for use of €28,371.06. The court used a total mileage of 250,000 km as the basis for calculating the compensation.

Decision for platform concept comes from Wolfsburg

It depends on whether and to what extent the company has access to the information. And also whether it bears responsibility for its lack of knowledge, the ruling states.

This could arise from the obligations of the parent company with regard to the group, with the consequence that the knowledge of the subsidiaries is to be attributed to it insofar as it has to organize it in accordance with these obligations.

The plaintiff, represented by Rogert & Ulbrich, argued that the parent company – Volkswagen AG – had decided to operate various models of its subsidiaries, such as the Porsche Cayenne, the VW Touareg and the Audi Q7, on one platform and to equip each with the Audi engine.

The decision that the group's subsidiaries will not compete with each other in terms of equipping their vehicles with engines, but rather that one engine will be used for the platform - possibly with adjustments - therefore comes from VW AG.

In addition, the problem of complying with EU limits was known in Wolfsburg. VW itself manipulated the limits with the help of a shutdown device its own engine EA 189.

In view of the existing technology transfer and the knowledge of the problems of how limit values are complied with, the Chamber believes it is incomprehensible that Wolfsburg did not want to worry about which technology the Audi engine uses to comply with the limit values.

Rather, it must be assumed that there will be a comprehensive exchange of know-how between the subsidiaries.

The result: VW is liable for Audi’s EA897evo.

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