Canadian VW diesel buyers share record $2.1B settlement
WINDSOR, ONT. Volkswagen Canada must pay $2.1 billion — the largest commercial settlement in the country’s history — to affected Canadian customers as part of a classaction vehicle-emissions lawsuit that started in Windsor, Ont.
The eight-page decision handed down Wednesday by Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba directs Volkswagen to pay owners and lessees of 105,000 2-litre Volkswagen and Audi diesel vehicles between $5,100 and $8,000 each in damages.
As well, owners have the option of having Volkswagen fix the emissions problem or selling their used cars back to the company at what the vehicles were worth in 2015. Either way, the class-action members still collect the damages.
Matt Quenneville, who works at a Windsor-area car dealership and was the lead plaintiff in the classaction case, called the decision great news.
“It’s good that we have it over and done with and we can finally return the vehicles and move on,” he said Wednesday. “It has been a lengthy process.”
Quenneville first went to a lawyer in 2015 after the Volkswagen emissions scandal broke.
On Sept. 18, 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency announced that its findings showed Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct-injection engines to activate more emission controls during testing — but to emit up to 40 times more nitrous oxide in real-world driving.
Volkswagen later admitted to rigging 11 million vehicles worldwide, in model years 2009 through 2015, including 500,000 in the U.S. — where last year the company agreed to pay about $10 billion in a class-action suit.
Maria Stenstroem, CEO of Volkswagen Group Canada, said in a statement: “Approval of the settlement is an important milestone in our journey to making things right in Canada . ... We are devoting significant resources and personnel to ensuring their experience with the settlement program is a positive one.”
Harvey Strosberg, the Windsorbased lead lawyer in the classaction suit along with Londonbased Charles Wright, called the case complicated but important.
“It’s a fantastic result,” said Strosberg, 72, who considers the case one of the greatest victories in his 46 years of practising law.