The U.S. Justice Department sued Volkswagen AG for
installing illegal devices meant to defeat emissions testing, and laid out
claims that could push penalties into the tens of billions of dollars -- an
opening salvo in a legal battle that could be far more costly for the German
carmaker than had been expected.
The civil complaint filed Monday accuses the automaker of
four violations of the Clean Air Act and outlines penalties that could amount
to as much as $80 billion -- about four times as much as the maximum some legal
experts had estimated. While the court is unlikely to come anywhere near that
amount, according to a senior Justice Department official, the penalties sought
against the company would still be in the billions of dollars, another senior
Justice Department official said.
Volkswagen already faces hundreds of private lawsuits in
the U.S. for its actions, which have been consolidated in San Francisco federal
court. The Justice Department said it will ask for its suit to be transferred
to that court as well, borrowing a tactic from its case against BP Plc in the
Gulf oil spill litigation, where it worked alongside plaintiff’s lawyers.
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