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Federal Judge Rejects Wyoming Lawsuit Against VW

A federal district court judge in California has tossed out a lawsuit by Wyoming against Volkswagen AG that sought $1.5 billion in environmental damages related to the carmaker’s diesel emission cheating scandal, Reuters reports.
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A federal district court judge in California has tossed out a lawsuit by Wyoming against Volkswagen AG that sought $1.5 billion in environmental damages related to the carmaker’s diesel emission cheating scandal, Reuters reports.

Judge Charles Breyer ruled that VW’s violation of the U.S. Clean Air Act was a matter correctly settled between the company and the Environmental Protection Agency. VW says the decision indicates that states cannot hold it responsible for the same conduct for which it was punished at the federal level.

The carmaker intends to file motions to dismiss lawsuits similar to the Wyoming complaint that were brought by nine other states. VW separately has spent some $600 million to settle claims that it violated state consumer protection laws by touting its diesels as “clean.”

VW so far has agreed to spend as much as $25 billion in the U.S. to make up for its wrongdoing, including $2.9 billion to compensate for the excessive pollution emitted by the 560,000 rigged engines it sold in the U.S. between 2009 and 2015.

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