German Court Dismisses Lawsuit Seeking To Ban Volkswagen Diesel Cars From Duesseldorf
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We reported a few months back on the news that the German environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) was filing lawsuits against a number of cities in the country, with the aim being to force the ban of Volkswagen diesel cars that are still releasing excessively high levels of emissions.
The first lawsuit in that series, in the German city of Duesseldorf, has already finished, as an administrative court has now dismissed the case.
Reuters provides more: “The trial at the administrative court in Duesseldorf was the first in a series of suits lobby group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) is bringing in 10 German cities to get them to take steps to ban polluting cars and improve air quality. DUH had claimed that the city unjustly allowed Volkswagen diesel vehicles that had contained emissions test-cheating software to continue to operate even though their emissions were still excessive following software upgrades.”
Which is a fair claim to make, by probably most people’s standards, as it is in fact exactly what happened.
I suppose here, though, the thinking that guided the court decision was that Volkswagen’s health is more important than that of any one (or 10, or 100, or 1000) citizen(s). That’s a fairly “Americanized” sentiment to possess for a German, though, isn’t it? 🙂
The actual point that I’m making here, of course, is: while the fact that oligarchs (and their pet corporations, etc.) effectively rule the US is acknowledged commonly enough, even if only in jokes, the reality is that the phenomenon is a problem the world over.
Do any local residents want to offer their opinion here on the motivation behind the dismissal?
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