DOJ Emissions Case Against VW Includes Charges of Import Violations
A complaint recently filed by the Justice Department against Volkswagen in Detroit federal court alleges the car manufacturer violated Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Act regulations by importing vehicles that did not match its certificates of conformity on file with…
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EPA, said EPA in a press release (here). The Jan. 4 civil complaint (here) stems from recent allegations that VW hid excessive emissions from federal emissions testing through use of a system that modified engine behavior during the EPA test procedure. It says VW did not list the devices on its certificates of conformity for the vehicles it manufactured and imported, seeking penalties at over $30,000 per car and alleging over 580,000 cars were in violation. DOJ also seeks penalties from VW for including the devices, which are in themselves illegal, on its cars, and for tampering. DOJ will seek to transfer its case and “fully participate in the pretrial proceedings now initiated in the related multi-district litigation in the Northern District of California,” it said.