Volkswagen cars wait to be shipped at the harbour in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, on June 1st 2018. Photo: AFP
A Vienna court has ordered a car dealer to reimburse a customer who bought a Volkswagen car because it was fitted with software designed to cheat emissions tests, the buyer's lawyers said Thursday.
"If the plaintiff had known that software designed to cheat emissions tests had been installed on the vehicle concerned, she wouldn't have bought it," the Commercial Court said according to part of the ruling cited by the Poduschka law firm, who represented the customer.
The judgement, if not overturned on appeal, will mean that the car dealer will have to take back the vehicle, bought for €26,500 in 2012, and to pay out a refund with interest totalling €29,000.
The plaintiff's lawyers said the judgement was the most favourable decision from the Austrian courts to date for a car buyer.
In autumn 2015 Volkswagen admitted that it had equipped 11 million of its diesel vehicles with software capable of falsifying the results of anti-pollution tests and covering up emissions up to 40 times over authorised limits.
The scandal has already cost the car giant more than €21 billion in vehicle recalls and legal cases. Several other car manufacturers have since also been investigated over similar practices.
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