EU urges Volkswagen to pay citizens compensation over 'Dieselgate'

BRUSSELS

The European Commission on Tuesday urged German auto producer Volkswagen to pay compensation to all European consumers who were misled by the company on diesel vehicle emissions.

The EU executive body and national consumer protection authorities sent a joint statement to Volkswagen calling them once again to pay a settlement to all EU consumers caught in the "Dieselgate scandal," the European Commission announced.

According to the bloc, the car company's "commercial practices violate EU consumer protection law" and the "marketing of such diesel cars was a clear instance of a misleading practice banned in the EU."

"Six years ago 'Dieselgate' broke. Up until now, not all consumers have been compensated," EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders commented on the statement.

He criticized Volkswagen's "unfair treatment of consumers" and the company's unwillingness "to work with consumer organizations to find appropriate solutions for consumers."

The EU executive body also revealed a letter dated Aug. 8 last year in which Reynders called Volkswagen to "consider offering fair compensation to all affected consumers in the (European) Union."

In the letter, Reynders pointed out that all affected EU citizens deserved a "fair and comparable treatment" with those that the firm had already made payments to, such as in Germany, according to the bloc's consumer law.

In 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency discovered that Volkswagen had installed a device on its vehicles to manipulate the results of emissions tests of turbocharge direct injection (TDI) diesel engines.

A subsequent investigation found that Volkswagen cars polluted more than the company advertised.

The firm sold over 11 million cars with the devices between 2009 and 2015 all over the world.

US consumers received $9.8 billion in settlement.

Last year, the producer promised to compensate German buyers, but excluded other EU nationals from the scheme.