Paris (AFP)
With the indictment of Fiat-Chrysler on Tuesday, five car manufacturers are now being prosecuted in France in the "Dieselgate" scandal relating to suspicion of fraud in the pollution control of diesel vehicles, paving the way for a possible trial and a possible compensation of motorists.
Volkswagen was the first to be indicted in this case on May 6, for "deception on the substantial qualities of a commodity causing a danger to the health of humans or animals".
Renault, Peugeot and Citroën followed in June for the same offenses, then Fiat-Chrysler on Tuesday.
The Italian-American manufacturer, which belongs to the Stellantis group, was also placed under the status of assisted witness for "obstructing" the investigation, told AFP its lawyer, Me Alexis Gublin.
Placed under judicial supervision, the group is required to pay a deposit of 150,000 euros and constitute a bank guarantee of 200,000 euros, he said.
These elements were confirmed to AFP by a judicial source.
The five manufacturers are accused of having equipped diesel vehicles with software capable of concealing polluting emissions during homologation tests.
Once in circulation, pollutant emissions could exceed up to 40 times the authorized standards.
After the revelation in the United States in 2015 of this scandal called "Dieselgate", several judicial inquiries were opened in Paris from 2016.
The Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) mentioned in a report in 2017 a "global strategy to manufacture fraudulent engines, then to market them".
For Fiat-Chrysler, the DGCCRF notes that "the operation of certain engine pollution control units is modified so that the emissions of NOx (nitrogen oxides) are below the regulatory threshold".
"Without this strategy (...) the vehicles concerned would therefore not have been able to be approved", underlines the gendarme of Bercy, estimating that "the practices" of the group "have deceived the consumers".
The development of such software, "complex", implies "a hierarchical validation chain and (requires) coordination between several services", according to him.
"FCA Italy disputes the facts with which it is accused and firmly believes that the vehicles in question complied with the regulations in force and will endeavor to demonstrate it", replied Me Gublin.
The group "now has the opportunity to present a precise and exhaustive defense against suspicions that it has not so far had the opportunity to challenge in adversarial proceedings," he added.
The other four manufacturers also refute these accusations.
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- Motorist compensation -
These lawsuits pave the way for a possible lawsuit, with a risk of fines of several billion euros for the manufacturers.
In its report, the DGGCRF mentioned, concerning Fiat-Chrysler, a "maximum fine" of 9.6 billion euros.
Owners of vehicles, whose value fell after the scandal was revealed, could then claim compensation.
"These indictments confirm the serious facts observed in 2015," said Me François Lafforgue, lawyer for the associations Ecologie sans frontières and Respire, as well as a hundred motorists.
He hopes that "all the light is shed, that the responsibilities are cleared and that the owners of vehicles victims of this deception can see this file lead to a hearing before the criminal court".
"We expect that the instruction is as short as possible and that we can have a trial allowing all consumers to seek compensation for their damage", added Me Charles Constantin-Vallet, adviser in particular of the association of CLCV consumers.
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The organization of a possible trial with potentially hundreds of thousands of motorists as civil parties would however require the establishment of unprecedented logistics, deemed "insurmountable" by a player in the case.
The investigating judges and the prosecution could then in particular consider prosecuting the builders within the framework of a judicial convention of public interest (Cjip), which would allow them to accept a conviction and a fine, without going through a trial.
The hypothesis of such an outcome, which should however take into account the compensation of owners, has already been mentioned, say several players in the file.
But it would require a prior legislative change, the Cjip being to date only allowed for companies accused in particular of "corruption", "influence peddling" or "money laundering", and not for the offense of "deception" at the heart of this issue.
© 2021 AFP