In 2015, the automotive industry was stunned by one of the most brazen acts of consumer fraud in recent history. Volkswagen and its affiliated companies had been exposed as lying about its “Clean Diesel” technology, going so far as to install special equipment to cheat emissions tests to fool customers and regulators into thinking VW diesel cars released safe amounts of CO2. In fact, over a half-million sedans were emitting unsafe levels of toxic gas.
The scandal was costly for VW. The company’s reputation took a huge hit and it was forced to address the serious environmental concerns caused by its fraud. In addition, VW had to compensate the consumers it had been deceiving for years. Now, after nearly five years, the process of reimbursing consumers is finally nearing completion. All told, VW paid $9.5 BILLION to bilked customers, mostly in the form of vehicle buy-backs.
The Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal is a good example of holding corporations accountable for their misconduct. Even so, it took a dogged investigation to uncover a sophisticated and shameless fraud, and then years more to obtain full compensation. As trial lawyers on the side of people, Grewal Law works to protect consumers from fraud and deception.
