Texas settles another lawsuit against VW

Hard to keep track, I know.

Volkswagen will pay the state of Texas $50 million to settle a deceptive trade practices lawsuit brought against the automaker. The settlement is part of an $14.7 billion nationwide agreement to resolve the nation’s largest auto scandal.

Volkswagen mislead consumers by promoting diesel vehicles as “clean” even though the German manufacturer knew the cars were equipped with software to cheat on emissions tests, according to the attorney general’s office.

The carmaker sold nearly 43,000 vehicles in Texas with 2.0 liter and 3.0 liter diesel engines, according to the agreement. The affected VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles include model years 2009 through 2015, according to court documents.

Under the terms of the agreement, VW is prohibited from falsely claiming its vehicles are environmentally friendly, selling cars with devices that can trigger false readings on environmental tests and misrepresenting emission levels.

The carmaker must also establish a $2.7 billion trust fund for projects to lessen the environmental harm caused by excessive Volkswagen emissions. Texas’ share is estimated to be as much as $191 million, according to the attorney general’s office.

See here for some background, and here for the original AG press release on this lawsuit. The FTC also sued a few months after this. The earlier settlement that was announced had to do with the actual environmental damage, which is what the $191 million Texas will get is all about. I presume money from this settlement will go to the defrauded VW vehicle owners, but the details are a little fuzzy to me. I suppose if you were one of those people who bought a VW diesel car, you might contact the AG’s office to see if you’re owed a few bucks now. The Statesman has more.

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