VW fights double fine

The Volkswagen Group’s bid to avoid being penalised twice for the same offence in relation to dieselgate will hinge on if the wrongdoing is identical or similar, according to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

An Italian court will have the final say based on the reference provided by the CJEU, which is based in Luxembourg.

The case centres on the company challenging an Italian anti-trust fine of €5 million levied in 2016 for its misleading advertising about vehicles fitted with illegal emissions control devices.

The marque believes it should not be sanctioned twice for the same offence after it paid a €1 billion German fine in 2018.

To date, the diesel-emissions scandal has cost VW more than €32b in refits, fines and legal costs.

The Italian court in its 2019 ruling dismissed the company’s appeal, saying there was no double jeopardy involved as the Italian fine derived from a different legal basis. VW took its case to the Italian Council of State which then sought advice from the CJEU.

Double jeopardy “may apply only where the facts to which the two sets of proceedings or the two penalties at issue relate are identical”, stated the CJEU judges. “It is, therefore, not sufficient that those facts be merely similar.”