Volkswagen Group is being sued for EUR3.3bn by a group of institutional investors in Germany who allege that the company failed to publish information about the emissions scandal in a timely manner.
Law firm TISAB said the lawsuit was over whether VW neglected its duty to the capital markets between June 2008 and September 2015.
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The case was filed Monday in Braunschweig – in VW's home state of Lower Saxony – on behalf of 278 institutional investors from around the world, Bloomberg reported.
"Due to the fact that – according to our information and experience – Volkswagen AG persistently denies any settlement negotiations and also refuses to waive the statute of limitation defence until now, it was necessary to file this first multi-billion euro lawsuit," lawyer Andreas Tilp said in a statement. Reuters noted that Tilp has already filed a lawsuit on behalf of retail investors.
A spokesman for VW told Reuters the carmaker could not comment because it had not been sent the suit.
Volkswagen is also embroiled in lawsuits in the US related to its emissions cheating scandal that broke in September of 2015 – the so-called 'dieselgate'. It transpired that the company fitted a cheat device to diesel engined models being tested for US federal emissions standards. In addition, the company is having to recall affected models across the world.
