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DAIMLER

Germany’s Daimler faces probe over ‘new cheating software’

Daimler confirmed Sunday it was facing a regulatory probe after a report said German authorities have uncovered a previously unknown type of pollution trickery software allegedly installed by the car giant in some of its vehicles.

Published: 14 April 2019 14:27 CEST
Germany's Daimler faces probe over 'new cheating software'
File photo: DPA

The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has initiated a formal hearing procedure, Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported.

The Stuttgart-based carmaker confirmed the hearing procedure.

“We fully cooperate with the Federal Motor Transport Authority and are reviewing the facts,” said Daimler in a statement.

“In the course of the hearing proceedings, we will present our view to KBA.”

According to the Bild report, around 60,000 vehicles of the Mercedes-Benz GLK 220 CDI models produced between 2012 and 2015 were affected.

The software allegedly reduced emissions of nitrogen oxide during test conditions. On the road however, the affected vehicles were spewing out amounts of the harmful gas that were above regulatory limits.

The KBA last year had already ordered Daimler to recall 700,000 vehicles worldwide, including 280,000 in Germany, over illegal software — a ruling the carmaker is appealing.

Daimler is also potentially facing a big fine over the diesel scam as German prosecutors said in February they had opened a “fine procedure” against it.

Diesel investigations have been running in Germany since 2015, when automobile giant Volkswagen admitted to building defeat devices into 11 million cars worldwide.

READ ALSO: EU accuses BMW, Daimler and VW of breaking antitrust rules

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POLLUTION

Germany can jail officials who flout anti-pollution rulings, court says

Germany can jail officials for failing to enforce inner-city bans on polluting vehicles, but only under specific legislation that respects proportionality, the European Court of Justice ruled Thursday.

Published: 19 December 2019 14:50 CET
Germany can jail officials who flout anti-pollution rulings, court says
Photo: DPA

It would be up to the German justice system to determine whether such politicians should face jail time, the court said, after being asked to rule on a long-standing dispute between environmental activists and the state government of Bavaria.

In a legal tug-of-war stretching back to 2012, environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) is attempting to force the Bavarian government to implement measures against air pollution in the state capital Munich.

Both activists and the judiciary have claimed the Bavarian government is flagrantly ignoring a 2014 Munich court decision demanding a plan of action to include a city ban for diesel-fuelled vehicles.

Thursday's ECJ opinion, though not legally binding, could have implications for leading politicians in the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democrats.

The ECJ said any jail sentence would require “a national legal basis which is sufficiently accessible, precise and foreseeable in its application”.

It added that such punishment must be “proportionate”.

READ ALSO: How German diesel bans have ignited a debate about dirty tricks and dodgy money

The court's advocate general had said in November that no such legal basis appeared to exist in Germany.

The Bavarian higher administrative court referred the case to the ECJ in November 2018, saying that “high-ranking political figures (had) made it clear, both publicly and to the court, that they would not fulfil their
responsibilities.”

Saying a €4,000 fine had proved “inefficient”, it asked the magistrates in Luxembourg to advise on the legality of threatening lawmakers with imprisonment.

In Thursday's ruling the ECJ recalled that the “referring court found that ordering the payment of financial penalties was not liable to result” in a change in conduct since the fine would be credited as income for Bavaria and thus “not result in any economic loss”.

It said incarceration should be a recourse “only where there are no less restrictive” measures such as stiffer, renewable fines whose payment “does not ultimately benefit the budget from which they are funded”.

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