The
plaintiffs say they lost money on a drop of almost a quarter in
Volkswagen's share price when it admitted cheating U.S.
diesel-emissions tests in September 2015. They say Volkswagen
should have warned the market earlier of the risk.
The claims represent just a fifth in value of the investor cases
pending at the Braunschweig higher regional court and a small
fraction of the legal headaches that Volkswagen faces worldwide
from investors, consumers and regulators.
The claims are being gathered in Germany's closest equivalent to
a class-action case, in which one case is picked as
representative and the outcome applied to all the others.
In all, around 1,540 investor cases are pending at the court
with a total claims volume of 8.8 billion euros. A court
spokesman said most of the other claims were from foreign
institutional investors.
Other existing plaintiffs can apply to join the test case
proceedings for the next six months but new plaintiffs cannot
come forward to join. The court said it would set a date for a
first hearing within the next three months.
(Reporting by Sabine Wollrab; Writing by Georgina Prodhan;
Editing by Keith Weir)
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