Volkswagen to pay £193m to settle UK diesel emissions lawsuit

According to foreign media reports, on May 25, Volkswagen settled a class action lawsuit brought by British consumers over the diesel emissions scandal for 193 million pounds (about 242 million US dollars).On the same day, Volkswagen once again apologised to customers in England and Wales and promised to rebuild trust.

Volkswagen and law firms Slater & Gordon, Leigh Day and PGMBM representing the claimants in the case said they had reached an out-of-court settlement and as many as 91,000 claims had been resolved.

According to a Volkswagen statement, the company will be solely responsible for the claimant's legal and other costs.Furthermore, paying the sum is not an admission of wrongdoing, but the most "commercially prudent" thing to do, given the legal costs involved in the six-month trial in the UK.

Philip Haarmann, Volkswagen's chief legal officer, said the settlement was an important milestone as the Volkswagen Group continued to emerge from the "dieselgate" haze.

In September 2015, the U.S. disclosed systemic emissions cheating by the Volkswagen Group, sparking the biggest business scandal in the company's history.In 2016, Volkswagen agreed to pay more than $25 billion in damages to U.S. consumers, environmental agencies, state governments and dealers, and would buy back half a million diesel vehicles that have already polluted the United States.

According to statistics, the Volkswagen Group has paid more than 26 billion pounds in fines, compensation, civil settlements and "dieselgate"-related buybacks worldwide.