The state of Ohio has decided to settle a lawsuit against Volkswagen over the German automaker's 2015 Dieselgate scandal for $3.5 million. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost released a statement regarding the settlement, saying the damage to the environment and consumer trust required them to hold Volkswagen accountable.
Yost added that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the attorney general's office would split the settlement money from Volkswagen. Both agencies will use this payment to work on other environmental protection cases in Ohio.
Volkswagen also issued a statement about the settlement, saying, "This agreement fully resolves Ohio's legacy claims and puts this matter behind the company as we focus on building a future of sustainable mobility."
Volkswagen might want to put this matter behind them, but the fight is still not over for the embattled German automaker. They still have to face pending lawsuits in Texas and two counties in Florida and Utah.
Volkswagen will be relieved, though, that it did not have to pay Ohio a huge amount in the settlement. According to court papers, the state initially demanded $350 million per day from Volkswagen or more than $127 billion per year over a multi-year period when the German firm committed its offenses.
Volkswagen sent shockwaves across the auto industry in 2015 when it admitted that it had used sophisticated defeat device software to evade emissions requirements in nearly 11 million vehicles globally. The software sensed when a Volkswagen vehicle was being tested and reduced the car's emissions.
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Volkswagen cars, however, produced higher than legal emissions under normal driving conditions, leading the United States Environmental Protection Agency to question the German automaker. The carmaker compounded its woes by misleading the EPA when the questioning regarding the emissions began in 2014.
That decision proved costly for Volkswagen, with the German firm paying a massive $20 billion settlement to the U.S EPA and owners. Volkswagen thought that was the end of it, but other states also filed lawsuits against the automaker. Volkswagen's subsidiary in the United States argued that only the federal government could pursue emissions claims against them under the Clean Air Act.
The U.S. Supreme Court saw otherwise, though, rejecting in November 2021 Volkswagen's bid to avoid lawsuits filed by officials from three American states, including Ohio. That allowed Ohio's lawsuit to move forward, with the state claiming that Volkswagen installed software updates to its vehicles after the sale to put the cars into "test" mode.
When the updates took effect, Volkswagen's vehicles suspended normal driving operations and only reduced emissions during testing. That enabled Volkswagen to cheat on its diesel emissions tests in Ohio and the rest of the United States.
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