Around ten thousand UK owners of VW Group cars affected by the diesel emissions scandal have begun proceedings for a class action lawsuit demanding around £3000 each in compensation.
To date, VW has not offered compensation to UK owners of 1.2M affected cars, arguing that its cars didn’t breach the laxer European emissions regulations and if successful it could cost VWG £30m and potentially £3.6bn.
VW’s problems are escalating in the US as well.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Volkswagen Group executive on charges of conspiracy to defraud the US, reported the New York Times.
Oliver Schmidt, who headed the company’s regulatory compliance office in the US from 2014 to March 2015, was arrested on Saturday. It follows the arrest of a VW official in South Korea earlier in the month.
VW hopes to close down further actions after agreeing a fix for about 70,000 US models and passed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
That, however, could still leave the American authorities open to prosecuting individuals it believes deceived them.