Victims of the VW exhaust scandal may complain of a judgment from the European court of justice (ECJ) in the country in which your car is purchased, the compensation of damages. The consumer would not need to pull in Germany, where Volkswagen has its headquarters, before the court, decided the judges in Luxembourg on Thursday (case C-343/19).
the Background is the case of 574 VW customers in Austria, whose collection of Klagenfurt is a suit before the district court. Normally, a complaint should be filed in the state in which the defendant has its seat or place of residence. Therefore, the Austrian court had asked the ECJ whether it is at all responsible.
The judges in Luxembourg decided in principle that, in cases such as the VW-exhaust gas scandal is an exception to the usual judicial duties. The place of the realization of the damage sun in the specific case in Austria. In addition, a car manufacturer, makes construction of a vehicle for an improper Manipulation could assume that he will be sued in the courts of the country in which he sells the cars.