€9 Billion in Claims at Stake in German VW Shareholder Hearings

A German court has begun 13 days of hearings on claims by Volkswagen AG stockholders who say the company owes them €9 billion ($10.4 billion) in compensation for cheating on diesel emissions.

Bloomberg News reports that the court is processing claims by some 4,000 investors. They complain they lost money because VW failed to alert them quickly enough when the cheating scandal surfaced three years ago.

VW admitted in mid-September 2015 that it rigged 11 million diesels worldwide to evade emission standards. The key to VW’s exposure is when VW’s leadership knew there was a problem. The further ahead of the disclosure, the more compensation the company could be told to pay.

One plaintiff’s lawyer tells reporters that VW knew as early as 2008 that it faced serious challenges complying with U.S. diesel emission rules. But information about the company’s solution—cheating—didn’t begin percolating up to top management until May 2014. Whether VW’s leadership recognized the magnitude of the penalties involved until a few days before its public announcement isn’t clear.

VW has estimated that the total financial impact of the scandal to date at more than €27 billion ($32 billion).