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Maryland Attorney General Says Volkswagen Is Facing More Lawsuits In U.S.

Volkswagen’s Dieselgate problems are not going away easily. The German brand is also facing lawsuits from various U.S. states, and Maryland seems to be the next in line.
Emission test on a Volkswagen Golf IV, not affected by Dieselgate 1 photo
Photo: European Commission, 2009
Brian Frosh, Maryland Attorney General, has said that his state and others intend to sue Volkswagen for the damage caused by the “defeat devices” used in its diesel-engined vehicles.

According to Frosh, the state of Maryland is acting in coordination with New York and Massachusetts, along with others, and each of the attorneys generals is communicating with their equivalents to prepare the case.

As Bloomberg notes, the Attorney General of Maryland will have a press conference in Baltimore to announced the plans regarding a lawsuit against Volkswagen AG.

Along with other U.S. states, Maryland’s Attorney General wants to hold the German automaker accountable for its actions over the past years regarding defrauding regulators, as well as pollution caused without any penalty.

Volkswagen settled with US regulators last month to pay approximately $15.3 billion, but the deal only involved payments to clients of the dieselgate-affected vehicles. Now, the German corporation is facing lawsuits from both government authorities and consumer groups alike.

The lawsuits we mentioned are not only happening in the USA, as South Korea plans an independent action on the matter. Meanwhile, European laws do not work in a way that allows this kind of lawsuits for consumer groups, but individual countries could find solutions to sanction Volkswagen for its behavior.

In the case of Maryland, Volkswagen will be taken to court for violating the state’s environmental laws. Regarding other U.S. states, like California, environmental protection laws enforced across the state allow authorities to sanction automakers if they discover any irregularities in emission testing.

In the case of Volkswagen, a company that has recognized a cheating scheme applied worldwide, including in the USA, prosecutors will not have to focus on demonstrating the blame, but rather find a way to calculate the penalty that they will apply to the automaker.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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