Published : Dec. 14, 2018 - 15:23
A South Korean court on Friday ruled against a request of Volkswagen and its affiliate Audi that a hefty fine, imposed on the local unit of the German automakers two years ago for false advertisements on its fabricated emissions results, be canceled.
The Seoul High Court ruled that there was no problem with the Fair Trade Commission's imposition of a record 37.3 billion won ($33 million) fine in 2016 on Audi Volkswagen Korea, the local unit of the German carmakers, for producing false advertisements for its cars to cover up fabricated emissions results.
(Yonhap)
At that time, the government watchdog accused AVK of falsely advertising that its models met the tightened European emission standards from 2008-2015 and its diesel-powered cars were highly energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
But AVK, Volkswagen and Audi together filed a lawsuit, claiming that the FTC's fine should be canceled.
It was the largest fine imposed by the FTC for false advertising, surpassing the previous record of 2 billion won set in 2002.
The so-called Volkswagen emissions scandal began in 2015 after regulators found that the German automaker group had intentionally programmed its diesel engines to activate their emissions controls only during emissions testing. (Yonhap)