Volkswagen has recently announced that they will be challenging allegations made by the US Department of Justice over the diesel emission scandal, questioning the authorities jurisdiction, and mentioning that the accusations does not justify the penalty.
Notably, the United States Department of Justice sued Volkswagen in January, mentioning that the company had installed illegal devices in nearly 600,000 vehicles sold in the global and US market, which impaired emission controls and increased harmful air pollution.
Volkswagen reportedly admitted last September that it had installed software to cheat on emission tests in as many as 11 million diesel vehicles globally, according to New York Times.
However, in a response filed on Tuesday, the German automaker seemed to back away from its own claims, mentioning that the facts are still unclear and it was still conducting an internal investigation.
The response, reportedly also challenged court's jurisdiction over Volkswagen, and its subsidiary Audi, saying that the vehicles in US was sold through local businesses and not through the parent company. Additionally, the response also stated that the statute of limitations voided any conduct of Volkswagen before 2010.
According to Volkswagen's lawmakers, the Justice Department "fails to allege facts sufficient" for any penalties. However, they mentioned that the filing is a part of the process and mentioned that it "has no bearing on Volkswagen's commitment to resolving the U.S. government's claims."
Incidentally, Volkswagen's stance is quite different from the steps taken by General Motors, when the manufacturer failed to disclose a deadly defect in ignition switch. The Justice Department had then levied a small fee of $900 million as a penalty, citing the automaker's cooperation, and held off any criminal charges.
Although prosecutors have held off criminal charges against Volkswagen, yet the Justice Department mentioned that the civil suit did not include future actions.
The Justice Department was unavailable to comment on Volkswagen's response.
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