EU Court against double fine to Volkswagen on Dieselgate

Volkswagen cannot be sanctioned in Italy for the ‘Dieselgate’ after having been sanctioned in Germany, if there has not been sufficient coordination of the sanctioning procedures of the two States. This was stated in the opinion presented today by the advocate general of the EU Court, which is not binding for the purposes of the sentence. The sanction imposed by the Italian authorities could be of a criminal nature and, in the hypothesis in which it is ascertained that the facts are identical to those already judged in Germany, it would violate the right not to be punished twice for the same crime. Volkswagen has marketed 10.7 million diesel vehicles worldwide equipped with devices suitable for altering the detection of polluting emissions, recalls the Court in Luxembourg. Of these, 700,000 were sold in Italy. In August 2016, the Italian Competition and Market Authority fined the car manufacturer 5 million, deeming the sale of these vehicles and the related misleading advertising to be an unfair commercial practice. Volkswagen appealed the fine, the highest for such a violation. In 2018, the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor’s Office in Germany initiated criminal proceedings against Volkswagen, notifying it of a fine of 1 billion euros, paid by the company in June 2018. As for the procedure in Italy, in April 2019 it was rejected at first instance Volkswagen’s appeal, given that the judge considered that the antitrust fine had a different legal basis. The company appealed to the Italian Council of State, which referred the case to the Court of Justice. In his opinion, the advocate general of the Court of Justice Manuel Campos Sánchez-Bordona affirms that it is up to the Council of State to ascertain the criminal nature of the proceedings and the sanctions, also considering that the fine imposed in Germany is of a criminal nature.