The Volkswagen Group is facing a major lawsuit after it is taken to court by its first major customer. The German fish distributor Deutsche See sued the automaker for falsely representing a fleet of vehicles. The company had leased it to the German client saying that it is environmentally friendly.
After the fallout with the German group, VW is now facing a scandal related to emissions scandal. Deutsche See is based out of Bremerhaven and it had leased close to 500 vehicles from VW. According to reports, Deutsche See is suing VW for a sum of 11.9 million euros ($12.8 million).
"Deutsche See only went into partnership with VW because VW promised the most environmentally friendly, sustainable mobility concept," stated Deutsche See. The German company had won a sustainability prize in 2010.
The automaker is involved in a number of lawsuits from various individuals as well as corporations, Many of the cases against Volkswagen are class-action cases in the U.S. However, this is the first time that the company has been sued in its home country, reported Auto News.
The German company tried to settle things out-of-court but the talks did not materialize. It is said that VW had replaced the managers who were involved with lawyers and PR managers during the talks. Deutsche See was not available for an official comment.
It is reported that Deutsche See had filed the complaint at a regional court in Brunswick. This is close to Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters. There is no official confirmation on this as the court did not state that it had received a case, reported Reuters.
In 2015, Volkswagen had confessed that it had used software to hoodwink the tests for diesel emissions in the U.S. The legal cases that the company is facing will cost the company more than 20 billion euros ($21.6 billion) until now.
After this, the CEO Martin Winterkorn is under scrutiny by German prosecutors. He is suspected for manipulating the market with false promises and even fraud cases. VW did not make an official comment on this case yet.
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