Volkswagen shareholders seek $9.2 billion over diesel scandal

A German court has been flooded with new lawsuits against Volkswagen from investors who say they lost billions as the value of the carmaker’s shares plunged after its diesel emissions scandal.

Of those suits, 750 were submitted on Monday alone, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the disclosure by U.S. authorities of the company’s use of illegal software on its diesel vehicles to cheat on U.S. emission tests.

The rush of filings this week was intended to ensure that Volkswagen could not challenge the claimants’ right to sue by citing a one-year statute of limitations for material claims under German securities law, said Marc Schiefer, a German lawyer representing institutional and individual shareholders whose claims against the carmaker exceed $5.6 billion.

Among the shareholders suing Volkswagen in Braunschweig are hundreds of individuals, as well as private and public pension funds in Germany and the United States.

[...] unlike the solution proposed to shareholders, the main recourse available to consumers has been to band together with a handful of lawyers and online collection agencies to obtain compensation.