Belgian victims of the Dieselgate scandal who still want to file a claim for €1,000 in compensation need to hurry, because the deadline of Sunday, October 26th, is fast approaching.
However, the victims themselves do not seem to be losing any sleep over it. According to the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, only 2,400 Belgians have come forward so far, while an estimated 320,000 drivers of a Volkswagen, Audi, Škoda, or Seat are eligible.
The Dieselgate affair revolves around the global emissions software scandal at Volkswagen. In addition to traditional legal proceedings, Testaankoop also filed a class action lawsuit against the German car manufacturer.
After years of legal wrangling, the consumer organization and Volkswagen reached an agreement in April on how compensation for Belgian consumers would work in practice, namely, via a specific platform on the Testaankoop website.
And what has happened so far? Just over 2,400 Belgian owners have come forward to file a claim with Test Aankoop/Test Achat. This amounts to more than 2.6 million euros in claims. However, that is still a drop in the ocean when you consider that, according to the consumer organization, around 320,000 Belgian vehicles are eligible for compensation.
Average compensation of €1,000
This low number can be explained by the fact that victims are simply unaware that they are eligible for compensation, have forgotten about the affair, or have sold their cars in the meantime.
However, claims can still be submitted until October 26th, and you don’t have to be a member of Test Aankoop/Test Achat to participate in the class action lawsuit. Specifically, anyone who purchased a Volkswagen between September 1st, 2014, and September 22nd, 2015, as well as models from Audi, Škoda, and Seat with the infamous EA189 diesel engine, is eligible.
Even someone who has since sold his car is eligible. All you have to do is download a proof of purchase, any proof of sale, and proof that the car’s software was not updated on the Testaankoop website.
“Those who meet the conditions will receive 5% of the purchase price of the car back,” says Test Aankoop/Test Achat spokesperson Laura Clays in the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. “Or, if the car has since been sold, 5% of the difference between the purchase price and the sale price.” According to Testaankoop, this amounts to an average of around €1,000 per person.
The number of claims in the EU is quite limited
Volkswagen has acknowledged that approximately 11 million vehicles worldwide were equipped with the manipulated software. However, compared to the potentially millions of vehicles involved, the actual number of claims or compensation cases is quite limited.
In Europe, for example, Volkswagen reached an agreement with approximately 91,000 claimants in England and Wales for an average of £2,100 per vehicle, and in Italy, with approximately 60,000 claimants for an average compensation of €1,100 per vehicle.
In France, too, no large-scale compensation payments have yet been made, but the class action lawsuit has now been declared admissible.
For clarity’s sake, European legislation on collective actions did not come into full effect until 2023. As a result, consumer organizations in many countries have recently been able to bring effective class action lawsuits with a chance of success.
