Volkswagen Targeted by Federal Trade Commission Lawsuit
It wasn’t so clean, was it?
The Federal Trade Commission filed suit against Volkswagen on March 29, claiming the automaker’s “Clean Diesel” ad campaign was a deception that tricked buyers into purchasing its supposedly eco-friendly vehicles.
By filing the complaint against Volkswagen, the FTC (which can’t levy fines) would be able to seek compensation for buyers via a federal court order.
“Our lawsuit seeks compensation for the consumers who bought affected cars based on Volkswagen’s deceptive and unfair practices.”
The lawsuit is the latest in a biblically long list of legal action being taken against the company in the wake of the scandal.
The court order concerns diesel Volkswagens sold in the U.S. between late 2008 and late 2015, a total of nearly 600,000 vehicles.
According to the FTC, the now-notorious “Clean Diesel” ad campaign pushed vehicles by claiming they were low emission, environmentally friendly and would hold a high resale value.
In its promotional materials, Volkswagen claimed that its diesel engines reduced nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 90 percent, when in reality they belched them out at up to 4,000 percent of the legal limit. The automaker’s claim of being compliant with emissions regulations in all states also figures into the FTC’s lawsuit.
The vote that led the FTC to file suit was a unanimous one.
Volkswagen continues to hunt for an acceptable fix for all of the defeat device-rigged diesels, and was recently allowed an extension to a court-ordered deadline. It has until April 21 to unveil a plan on how it will fix, or possibly buy back, the recalled vehicles.
More by Steph Willems
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"biblically long list of legal action" -- nice phrase As I mentioned in another thread on this subject, I've become convinced they're merely spending their 1-month hiatus getting a legal/financial settlement in order. They are probably communicating through back channels to assure it is approved when presented. There won't be a technical fix. And I don't think CA will let these cars stay on the road.
This angle I hadn't thought about before. To date I've only considered making owners (including dealers) whole again. I wonder how many countries have laws concerning deceptive advertising? Volkswagen is in more trouble than I thought, and I thought they were in enough trouble to bankrupt before this suit. Consumers should still be able to bring individual suits regardless of what the FTC does. Nice correct usage of caps in the word "biblically." Too often mis-capitalized, it is only used with a capital letter when makng direct reference to the Biblical document itself.