Toronto (Canada) (AFP)

Volkswagen fined 196.5 million Canadian dollars (135 million euros) Wednesday after pleading guilty to 58 charges of violating Canadian environmental laws in the global diesel engine scandal rigged.

A Toronto court validated an amicable settlement between the German automaker and the Canadian government, which had filed these charges against Volkswagen in December.

By accepting this agreement, "the company has admitted its fault and accepted full responsibility for its actions", welcomed the prosecutor Tom Lemon, adding that the maximum amount that the fine could reach was 265 million dollars, under Canadian law.

This fine is in addition to the nearly C $ 2.4 billion that Volkswagen previously agreed to pay in Canada to compensate Canadians who bought cars that did not meet Canadian standards between 2009 and 2016.

In the same year, Volkswagen was also fined $ 17.5 million by the Canadian Competition Bureau for false advertising.

In December, Ottawa accused the automaker of knowingly importing cars into Canada that do not meet emission standards, after more than four years of investigation.

Volkswagen has 30 days to pay the new fine, said judge Enzo Rondinelli on Wednesday.

The amount "is twenty-six times higher than the highest fine ever imposed for an environmental offense in Canada," said prosecutor Tom Lemon.

The fine represents $ 1,450 for each of the approximately 130,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche cars imported into Canada during the period of investigation. The total amount also includes a fine of $ 8 million for providing and pleading guilty to two counts of "misleading information" to consumers.

Volkswagen admitted in 2015 that it had equipped more than 11 million cars with software that made them seem less polluting than they actually were.

The "dieselgate" has since cost VW more than 30 billion euros in legal fees, fines and compensation, mainly in the United States. The automaker also announced in January that it has started negotiations to settle amicably a large lawsuit against hundreds of thousands of customers in Germany.

One of the most recent settlements came in September, when Volkswagen agreed to pay 127 million Australian dollars (79 million euros) to settle Australian motorists' collective legal proceedings.

© 2020 AFP