The Frankfurt public prosecutor has imposed a fine of 64.8 million euros on the car manufacturer Opel. Four managers also had to pay. There will be no legal proceedings like the one at VW.
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Audio page Opel pays fine in emissions scandal
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Clean on the test bench, dirty on the road – more than five years ago, Opel diesel models were unpleasantly noticed in emissions tests. The Federal Motor Transport Authority and the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor then investigated the suspicion of fraud and exhaust gas manipulation. In the end, Opel faces a million-dollar fine.
The public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt imposed a fine of 64.8 million euros on Opel in February. However, the sentence was not made public in the spring. Only now, on HR request, did the authorities provide information. Opel “violated documentation requirements” when approving the diesel models, said a spokeswoman.
However, the Rüsselsheim-based company and its managers are spared a trial – unlike the ex-VW bosses who are currently in the dock in Braunschweig.
The procedure is over
The public prosecutor’s office was investigating six Opel employees, including suspected fraud. Two of them have been dropped for minor guilt. The other four won’t have to answer in court either. They had to pay monetary requirements between 5,000 and 10,000 euros, but the public prosecutor’s office “refrained from filing a public lawsuit,” as the spokeswoman said.
Both Opel and the four employees have now paid the amounts, so the process is over, she said. The company confirmed that.
Opel: No fine for fraud
An Opel spokesman emphasized that the fine was only paid for a “negligent breach of administrative law”, not for fraud. Above all, the court found no illegal defeat device in the Opel models.
Such facilities are also called “cheat software”. The software recognizes when the car is on the test bench of the exhaust gas tester. Then the emission control is switched on, the car runs clean and complies with the limit values. On the road, however, the emission control is shut down. This protects the engine and saves cleaning fluid (“Adblue”). But the car is turning into a muck.
Environmental aid criticizes decision
The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) still assumes that Opel used such software. For this reason, it published a recall for three Opel diesel models in January 2020. This explicitly refers to “impermissible disconnection devices” that are to be removed by a software update. Specifically, it concerns certain diesel variants of the Zafira, Insignia and Cascada models, which were built up to 2016.
Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) criticizes the fact that the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office still refrains from filing a lawsuit. DUH managing director Jürgen Resch told the hr that Opel had promised its customers clean diesels, “but sold outright poison gas spinners”. The public prosecutor’s office is apparently committed to the interests of large industrial groups, citizens who have been betrayed looked into the pipe.
Investigations started twice
The environmental aid reported Opel five years ago, including for fraud. The Darmstadt public prosecutor’s office then began to investigate, but had to hand over the investigation to the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office. This stopped the investigation after a few months with the note that there was no sufficient suspicion.
A year later, it was the Federal Motor Transport Authority that reported Opel to the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office – essentially because of the same allegations that the Environmental Aid had previously made. The investigation began again. In 2018, the public prosecutor’s office even searched Opel offices in Rüsselsheim and Kaiserslautern. This procedure has now ended with the fine.
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