The European Court of Justice confirms DUH’s legal opinion: Disable devices for mass disabling exhaust cleaning in diesel cars from Volkswagen and Porsche are illegal. The court notes the requirements of the legislator that the exhaust gas cleaning should work during normal driving, which means that it should also work in the winter months. DUH talks about a “good day for clean air in German cities”: the Federal Transport Authority has so far accepted gross illegal violations of the maximum value of toxic nitrogen oxides for diesel exhaust, up to thirty times.
On the occasion of today’s rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding defeat devices in diesel cars, German environmental aid (DUH) Immediate recall of all affected diesel vehicles, especially those with Euro 5 and 6 emission levels. With today’s decisions, the European Court of Justice confirms DUH’s legal opinion, which according to defeat devices that choke exhaust gas cleaning of vehicles depending on outside temperature is illegal . A decision on actions was made today on models from Volkswagen and Porsche (C-128/20 GSMB Invest, C-134/20 Volkswagen, C-145/20 Porsche Inter Auto and Volkswagen). Thus, the Court follows the opinion of the Attorney General of the European Court of Justice as of September 2021.
“Minister of Transport Wesing must now recall all affected fraudulent diesel engines, not only from Volkswagen and Porsche, but also from BMW and Mercedes-Benz and either re-recall them with effective exhaust gas cleaning at the manufacturer’s expense or order them to be shut down.”
Jürgen Resch, Federal Managing Director of DUH
In addition to Jürgen RischFederal Director General of the Health Home: “The court confirms what we have been struggling with for years: It is not the test bench in the laboratory that is the measure of all things, but the emission behavior of vehicles in normal operation on a road. The relevant Federal Motor Transport Authority and Minister of Transport Vising must now Put an end to the violation of the law by defeating devices that have been going on for years, and before the onset of the winter months, recall all damaged diesel cars, which are several million in number, and retrofit them with effective exhaust gas cleaning at the expense of manufacturers. Otherwise, they must be closed and vehicle owners compensated by diesel manufacturers convicted of fraud.”
DUH has sued the Federal Motor Vehicle Transportation Authority for nearly 100 models from various manufacturers. Similar defeat devices are installed on all models, which the court has now confirmed as illegal. One of these measures is also before the European Court of Justice. The responsible attorney general had already made a similar statement in DUH’s proceedings regarding the hardware evaluation and confirmed DUH’s position in suing in these cases.
