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The largest consumer class action lawsuit in history is once again facing Volkswagen, just after the Volkswagen Group announced that the emissions cheating scandal had caused 31.3 billion euros in damages.

According to foreign media reports, the British High Court formally ruled that Volkswagen used an efficiency reduction device to help some of its diesel vehicles pass emissions tests, which means consumers can launch a class action lawsuit against Volkswagen Group.

According to statistics, as many as 90,000 owners sued Volkswagen Group and offered financial compensation, involving owners of Audi, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen brands. The class-action suit will also be the largest consumer lawsuit in British legal history.

Judge Waksman, presiding judge in the case, said the view that "the effectiveness reduction devices used by Volkswagen Group are illegal devices" in this case is not a single statement, and many courts and industry organizations agree with this judgment.

A British lawyer involved in the case argued that Volkswagen deliberately defrauded the rules by installing an illegal device that reduced nitrogen oxide emissions 40 times and avoided vehicle emissions tests.

At present, the class action lawsuit of consumer rights advocates still needs further investigation, that is, whether the effectiveness reduction device has caused actual damage to consumers, the results of which are expected to be announced in 2021. If consumers win, the public will pay hundreds of millions of pounds.

Volkswagen said it would continue to appeal the ruling. In a statement, Volkswagen said: "To be clear, this judgment does not determine any question of causation or loss. Volkswagen remains confident in the case that the claimants have not suffered any losses and that we should not assume the claims they have made."

In Germany, Volkswagen reached a settlement agreement with consumer organization VZBV, agreeing to pay 830 million euros in compensation to owners, thus resolving litigation claims filed by hundreds of thousands of diesel car owners.

In September 2019, more than 400,000 German Volkswagen car owners signed a class action lawsuit over Volkswagen diesel emissions test cheating, and the German consumer organization VZBV filed a complaint with the court demanding that Volkswagen pay for its cheating and make financial compensation. The incident was not resolved until February 2020, when Volkswagen reached a settlement agreement with consumer organizations at a cost of 830 million euros (about 6.4 billion yuan) in compensation.

Volkswagen said in a statement that it agreed to pay 830 million euros as part of the settlement. Hiltrud Werner, Volkswagen's head of legal affairs, said in a statement that the agreement represented "a fair and verifiable solution" and that the company "will now make every effort to provide a one-time payment as soon as possible."

Although four and a half years have passed since the emission gate, the related lawsuits and fines are still not over, and multinational consumers and local organizations still demand that the public take responsibility, which will be a long-lasting "nightmare" for the public.

According to earlier figures released by Volkswagen, Volkswagen Group has so far paid 31.3 billion euros (about 245 billion yuan) in fines and settlements in the emissions cheating scandal. VW expects the losses to continue into 2021, and the group says it has the funds ready.

The "emission gate" is destined to make the public pay a painful price. In September 2015, the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal was exposed in the United States, and Volkswagen admitted that it controlled the software of some diesel engines to run only during regulatory tests and shut down during normal driving, thus avoiding emission exceeding detection, but the actual emissions exceeded the limit by 10-14 times. It is understood that there are about 11 million Volkswagen diesel vehicles installed with cheating software worldwide, 8 million in Europe alone, including 2.4 million in Germany.

Now, Volkswagen is rapidly transforming towards electrification, struggling to shake off the adverse effects of the emissions scandal. However, the continuous fermentation of the emission gate will still cause huge losses to the public, and will also have a huge impact on the image and sales of the public.

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