Finland: Why owners of Dieselgate cars have not yet been compensated - and how Dieselgate victims can secure their rights

Volkswagen must pay for scamming millions and millions of customers. And so far, not too little. It is estimated that the Volkswagen Group alone has already paid up to 25 billion euros in fines and damages to the state and affected buyers. So far, the only countries to have profited from this are those in which either the government has taken tough action or in which buyers are particularly aware of the problem. These include the USA, England and Germany. Finland, however, has not yet benefited.

Here, too, there is a good chance of receiving compensation for a vehicle that is much more polluting than required by law. However, a major factor in the fact that customers have not been compensated to date is primarily that buyers are not sufficiently informed about their rights. Media coverage of Dieselgate is also nowhere near as pronounced as in other countries.

What is clear, however, is that Volkswagen and other car manufacturers have also put vehicles on the market in Finland that contain so-called inadmissible defeat devices. The use of such equipment is illegal. As a result, the vehicles are on average more than 5 times more polluting in normal operation than in the tests of the approval procedures, in which the environmental friendliness of the vehicle is tested. This resulted in Volkswagen selling vehicles that it was not actually allowed to sell.

Buyers of cars with diesel vehicles must expect regulatory shutdowns and significant financial losses.

Therefore, there is already a threat of official decommissioning of these vehicles, which so far have not been implemented only due to a lack of political willingness. However, you should not count on such a lack of willingness existing in the future. It is more likely that the Finnish government will not shy away from decommissioning dirty vehicles as part of its plan to become climate-neutral by 2035. In addition, most European automakers also plan to stop producing internal combustion engines by the end of this decade. It is therefore foreseeable that vehicles with diesel engines will no longer have a future on the road in the medium and long term.  The first vehicles to be taken out of service by the authorities will be diesel engines. But even irrespective of official decommissioning, a considerable loss in value of these cars is to be expected, so that buyers can suffer considerable financial losses when they sell their old cars.

Claims for damages against car manufacturers threaten to become time-barred

It is therefore worth taking legal action against the car manufacturers. As a result of winning a legal dispute, you generally get back the purchase price minus a benefit of use and return the vehicle to the manufacturer. This leaves you in a much better position than if you resell the vehicle on the used car market. Even if you have already sold the car, it still makes sense to sue for damages. The compensation you demand in court will then only be reduced by the purchase price you achieved on the used car market. You should not be deterred by the negative attitude of the car manufacturers with regard to compensation. The manufacturers are all trying to play for time in order to let claims lapse. For this reason, you should not take too long to assert your claim.

Learn more about how to enforce claims for damages in Dieselgate cases here.