Abstract
The manipulation of exhaust emission standards through electronic devices in about 11 million Volkswagen cars worldwide, labeled Dieselgate, has given rise to one of the greatest industrial scandals in Germany in the last decades. Made public by a notice of violation of the US environmental protection agency in November 2015, its economic and legal consequences are still not foreseeable. The present contribution focuses on a crucial dimension of the scandal: the legal situation of buyers, mostly consumers, of manipulated cars under private and—as proof of criminal offenses may largely facilitate liability claims against Volkswagen—criminal law. Its main sources are German legal literature and the first national court decisions on the matter, which deserve to be presented to a foreign audience. Concluding that, contrary to the situation in criminal law, the available remedies under private law are not sufficiently effective, the contribution joins recent calls for the establishment, on the model of capital market law, of a collective action in consumer law to enhance the legal position of consumers.
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Notes
- 1.
The development of the Dieselgate scandal is reported chronologically on http://www.ingenieur.de/Politik-Wirtschaft/Unternehmen/Dieselgate-Hier-lesen-Sie-VW-Skandal-im-Ticker.
- 2.
See in this sense Haag (2015).
- 3.
See in particular Revilla (2016); Lüftenegger (2016); Riehm (2016); Altmeppen (2016); Steenbuck (2016); Peres (2016); Ahlbrecht and Basar (2015). Besides these publications, two studies have been published on the topic. This first was commissioned by the Federal Consumer Agency (see http://www.vzbv.de/sites/default/files/downloads/Rechtsgutachten-VW-manipulierte-Schadstoffwerte-KFZ-Oktober-2015.pdf); the second, drafted by the Scientific Service of the German parliament, by the Green party (see https://www.gruene-bundestag.de/fileadmin/media/gruenebundestag_de/themen_az/verkehr/PDF/Manipulation-von-Emissionskontrollsystemen-durch-Autohersteller.pdf).
- 4.
See, in particular, LG Münster of 14th March 2016, 11 O 341/12—available at http://www.juris.de with annotation by Hoffmann-Benz S (2016) jurisPR-VerkR 11/2016; LG München of 14th April 2016—23 O 23033/15—available at http://www.juris.de; LG Frankenthal of 12th May 2016, 8 = 208/15—Available on http://www.juris.de.
- 5.
See Ahlbrecht and Basar (2015).
- 6.
On this part, see Lüftenegger (2016).
- 7.
On the recall issue, see Lüftenegger (2016).
- 8.
German regulation of 03.11.2011, BGBl. I:126, implementing European Directive 2007/46/EC, O.J. L 263/2 (2007).
- 9.
See BGH NJW (2009):2080.
- 10.
LG München I.
- 11.
See Faust (2014), Beck Online-Kommentar BGB, 2014, § 437 Rz. 177ff - available on https://beck-online.beck.de/.
- 12.
In this article, the English translation of the German Civil Code made available online by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection is used: http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_bgb/englisch_bgb.html#p1549).
- 13.
See No. 4.
- 14.
BGH decision of 8.12.2006—V ZR 249/05.
- 15.
C-404/06, Quelle Ag vs. Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen und Verbraucherverbände, 17 April 2008.
- 16.
Revilla (2016).
- 17.
See on this so-called Weiterfresser jurisprudence, e.g., Gsell B (2004) NJW:1913.
- 18.
See Spindler G in Beck, Online-Kommentar BGB, § 826 Rz. 16. https://beck-online.beck.de/.
- 19.
See on this subject the study of the Scientific Service of the Bundestag, https://www.bundestag.de/blob/415658/b656cd7418087fba3704f6dc1e821296/wd-4-004-16-pdf-data.pdf.
- 20.
Regulation (EC) No. 715/2007/EC, O.J. L 171/1 (2007).
- 21.
COM 2013/396/EU.
References and Websites
Ahlbrecht H, Basar E (2015) Dieselgate als Tor ins Unternehmensstrafrecht? In: Legal Tribune Online of 30.09.2015. Available on http://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/volkswagen-abgas-manipulation-ermittlungen-strafrecht-konsequenzen-unternehmensstrafrecht
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Lüftenegger K (2016) Der Fall Volkswagen – (k)ein Rückruf wie jeder andere?, DAR:122
Peres R (2016) Nach Dieselgate: Braucht Deutschland die Sammelklage? In: Legal Tribune Online of 27.05.2016. Available at http://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/sammelklage-verbraucher-vw-amerika/
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Riehm T (2016) “Dieselgate” und das Deliktsrecht, DAR:12
Steenbuck M (2016) Die Rechte der Käufer von Fahrzeugen mit überhöhten Abgaswerten, MDR:185
https://www.bundestag.de/blob/415658/b656cd7418087fba3704f6dc1e821296/wd-4-004-16-pdf-data.pdf
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_bgb/englisch_bgb.html#p1549
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Schmid, C.U. (2017). Germany. In: Frigessi di Rattalma, M. (eds) The Dieselgate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48323-8_2
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