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The first macro-trial in Spain against the Volkswagen group begins for the trucking of diesel engines made public in September 2015. At the trial, the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) demands, via the commercial court, 22 million euros in compensation to the Volkswagen for damages. The OCU represents in this trial more than 7,500 affected for those who ask for compensation of about 3,000 euros for each .

The trial begins after two failed arbitration attempts between both parties. In addition, last October the Catalan Consumer Agency filed the administrative complaint of the OCU against Volkswagen because it considered that there was no "infringement in terms of protection of consumers."

According to the Catalan Consumer Agency, "NOx emissions cannot be considered a determining element in the act of consumption , since at the time of sale it was not mandatory to provide the information mentioned and, therefore, no infraction was committed some for the car company. "

It was also indicated in the causes to file the complaint in which the Volkswagen group had put the means "with the aim of correcting the recognized vice".

The Volkswagen or dieselgate case is made public in the US in September 2015 in which the German company recognizes that it has truncated the emissions of its diesel vehicles. The consortium recognized more than half a million affected vehicles in the US and up to 11 million in the rest of the world.

This fraud has accelerated the transition to the electric vehicle and the change in the regulations for approval of emissions in Europe, from the obsolete NEDC cycle to the current, more real, WLTP.

Key

The approval is one of the keys in the lack of compensation of Volkswagen to those affected by Europe, including the 636,000 vehicles affected by the company's brands in Spain. It is key because in the US and Canada, Volkswagen has recognized fraud and has been sentenced to pay fines that exceed 28,000 million euros. In addition to withdrawing cars from the circulation, he has had to compensate his clients, in some cases, with $ 5,500 per tricked vehicle.

Why in Europe Volkswagen has won fraud trials? Because the approval regulations in the US are different from the European one . Basically in the US it is the company that certifies its products. Ergo, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche committed fraud against the Air Quality Law by approving their vehicles knowing that they emitted more NOx than the limit required by the regulations.

In Europe it is not the companies that certify their products. There are public entities dependent on the Member States of the European Union that are the ones that ultimately attest that the vehicle complies with the regulations, in the case at hand, the NEDC cycle.

In this case, the lawyers of Volkswagen have shielded that their vehicles were certified by the public entities in charge of homologating, so that these collaborating entities are necessary in the fraud. That is, the States are guilty of having approved such vehicles. And among them, Spain, given that Seat SA and the Ministry of Industry, commanded at that time by José Manuel Soria, would be ultimately responsible for such approval. Hence, the European Union opened a disciplinary proceedings against the countries (Germany, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, United Kingdom or Spain) where the vehicles of the different brands of the Volkswagen group are certified.

Hence the OCU refers to the fact that the affected Europeans have been discriminated against because "Volkswagen has paid compensation in the US". To which the company argues that the legislation in Trump's country is different from that in Europe.

Volkswagen also insists that the vehicles of those affected continue to circulate and have not lost value. The OCU said that those affected have bought a vehicle with different characteristics than those offered.

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