Green light for Altroconsumo’ class action against Volkswagen

Altroconsumo’s class action against Volkswagen was recently admitted by the Court of Venice in Italy. The decision concerns all VW Group cars, including Audi, Skoda and Seat.

The admissibility of this case sets precedent and could influence similar decisions around Europe, where consumer organisations are waiting to hear back on the admissibility of class actions they brought against Volkswagen.

The Dieselgate scandal involves almost 650,000 cars on the Italian market alone, and around 8 million vehicles in Europe. By now, Altroconsumo has gathered about 30,000 preliminary plaintiffs in the Italian class action.

The Italian consumer organisation invites consumers to join the collective redress action on altroconsumo.it.

The court order mentions: "Volkswagen's advertising and marketing green claims appear to be in contrast with the company's behavior denounced by the consumer association, and involved the installation of a defeat device, capable of reducing car emissions during tests and thus of misleading consumers about the car features".
 

To read more, here is Altroconsumo’s press release in English.