CAR MANUFACTURER VOLKSWAGEN could be about to face some of the largest-ever class-action lawsuits.
The company has admitted rigging diesel emissions software to pass US tests, with around 480,000 vehicles believed to have been affected.
Chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned yesterday over the scandal and the company has set aside billions to pay compensation.
Now, law firms across the globe are lining up to take on the German company.
Bozena Michalowska-Howells of Seattle law firm Leigh Day told Sky News:
“The key issue in this country is whether or not these devices were able to bypass the European emissions tests.
“If it is shown that this piece of software defeated the European testing then Volkswagen would be in a very similar position as it is in the US and may well then have to call in their cars with all the resulting costs involved.
The revelations shaking Volkswagen, the world’s biggest automobile manufacturer by sales with a workforce of 590,000 people, can be traced to the work of the US-based group International Council on Clean Transportation, which has a worldwide staff of 27.
Working with engineers at West Virginia University, they uncovered significantly higher levels of pollution spewing out of the exhaust pipes of cars on the road than those recorded in official tests.
With reporting from AFP and Associated Press
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