Volkswagen's rough ride is set to continue.
The company has been reeling since September 2015, when news first broke that Volkswagen had been purposefully cheating on emissions standards in its diesel engines. Since then, investors have sent Volkswagen's stock tumbling, governments have begun to take action and legal challenges are piling up.
[seealso slug=http://sale-online.click/2016/01/12/epa-carb-reject-vw-repair-plan%5D%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EThings are about to get worse. Dozens of major investors in Volkswagen are banding together to bring a lawsuit for hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution from the company. The case is led by a German law firm and currently counts around 66 large U.S. and British investors. Add that to the many other lawsuits Volkswagen now faces.
The suits center on Volkswagen's use of software in its diesel-engine cars that tricked emissions tests into showing that the cars produced a low amount of pollution. The company has been using this software since 2009 in millions of diesel cars.
In addition to the shareholder lawsuit, the U.S. government is suing Volkswagen for violations of the Clean Air Act. There's also legal action pending from owners of Volkswagen automobiles -- a case that former senator John Edwards is seeking to spearhead.
The lawsuit, first reported by Reuters, is likely to be only the first in a number of shareholder efforts to press Volkswagen for payback. There are lawsuits expected to be filed on behalf of other large investors as well as individuals investors.
Volkswagen had previously estimated that the scandal would cost the company around $2.2 billion. The number pales in comparison to the amount of value lost by Volkswagen shareholders since the scandal began. Its stock has lost roughly 30% of its value since then -- around $24 billion.
