Ten years after the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal broke, Euroconsumers is still fighting for consumer compensation across Europe. Find out our progress, our many actions, and how the global scandal has impacted on collective redress in the EU.
Discovery of the Dieselgate defeat device
In 2014 an independent research team testing Volkswagen diesel cars discovered a major discrepancy in their emissions data. The levels of nitrous oxide emissions in real-world driving conditions were up to 40 times higher than those recorded in laboratory conditions.
The company finally admitted in 2015 that software had been installed in the vehicles that could artificially reduce emissions under laboratory conditions. This ‘defeat device’ software was installed in around 11 million VW cars worldwide – 8 million of which were in Europe.
Misleading consumers in this way (by claiming their car was less polluting than it was) denied them the opportunity to make an informed choice of another model. Affected cars also saw a rapid decrease in value meaning consumers also lost out on resale value.
September 2015: the Dieselgate scandal explodes as it becomes clear that the Volkswagen group has misled their customers for years by selling them cars that polluted way more NOx t
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Six years after the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal broke, Euroconsumers is still fighting for consumer compensation across Europe. Find out our progress, our many actions, and how t
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