Highest Court In Germany Rejects Volkswagen’s Bid To Suspend Dieselgate Audit

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In a nice bit of news, the highest court in Germany has now ruled to reject Volkswagen’s bid to suspend further investigation into the actions of the company’s management during the “dieselgate” emissions scandal by a special auditor.

In other words, despite Volkswagen’s attempt to avoid further revelations about illegal and/or fraudulent activity, the possibility remains that auditors will indeed turn up something new and notable.

To be more specific, though, the court panel — which was composed of 3 judges — simply dismissed Volkswagen’s request for an injunction, rather than providing any sort of opinion on the case. The case presented by lawyers for Volkswagen had been that the company had its fundamental rights violated by the naming of the auditor by a lower court.

“The constitutional complaint that has been filed is neither a priori inadmissible nor is it obviously ungrounded,” explained the Constitutional Court panel in the 5-page ruling dated December 20, as reported by Reuters.

That coverage provides more: “It added, however, that VW had not ‘convincingly made the case for an immediate decision’. A regional court appointed the auditor in November, in a victory for shareholder groups that want to establish whether VW bosses withheld market-moving information about the manipulation of vehicle-emissions tests.”

“The court in the town of Celle ruled that VW could not appeal against its decision. The auto maker views the appointment of the auditor as a violation of its fundamental rights, a company spokesman said on Friday.”

The reporting also noted that VW had pledged a long time back to improve transparency but it hasn’t even released the findings used in the case with the US Justice Department to come to its $4.3 billion settlement. That does indeed make one wonder what exactly is in those findings.


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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