THOUSANDS of Volkswagon owners are in line to get an average of £2,100 in compensation following the emissions scandal.
The German car maker has agreed a £193million settlement with 91,000 UK motorists.
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It emerged back in 2015 that millions of VW owners were allegedly deceived into buying cars with software that cheated emissions tests.
It meant that drivers of VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda diesel vehicles believed their cars were environmentally friendly but instead the emissions were far higher than the company said.
The company admitted that 11 million cars worldwide, including 8 million in Europe, had the devices installed.
Furious car owners brought forward “class action” against the car manufacturing giant.
The case was supposed to go to the High Court in 2023.
But now an out of court settlement has been reached.
Although its not known exactly how much owners will get, a £193million settlement spread out between 91,000 affected motorists would mean an average payout of around £2,100.
Europe’s largest carmaker apologised again to UK customers earlier this week and called the deal an “important milestone”.
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But it made no admissions as to liability, causation or loss.
Announcing the settlement, Ben Smyth, investment officer at Therium Capital Management, said that “taking legal action was the only way to ensure that VW would be held to account for allegedly misleading their customers and cheating emissions guidelines to the detriment of air quality and human health”.
Who gets a £2,100 payout?
To get the payout, you would have had to be one of the 91,000 motorists who joined the “class action” lawsuit against VW.
The criteria to join included:
- Your car is/was a VW, Audi, Seat or Skoda
- It has/had a 1.2, 1.6 or 2 litre diesel engine
- It was made between 2009 and 2015
- You purchased, leased or acquired it (new or secondhand) before 1 January 2016
Not all cars manufactured by the VW Group were affected.
Motorists were told in 2017 that if the case was successful then 30% of the compensation awarded will be taken by the court to cover legal costs.
VW isn’t the only company to have coughed up compensation to customers.
Millions of BT customers are closer to getting a £500 payout after a £600 class action claim was brought against the telecoms giant.
BT has been accused of overcharging elderly and low income customers.
While Lloyds Banking Group had to pay £13.6million to 350,000 customers following an investigation into home insurance renewal policies.
The Financial Conduct Authority said it found that the bank’s wording of millions of policies was not clear and misleading.
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