The German state of Bavaria said it will sue Volkswagen Group for damages caused by the emissions-test cheating scandal, the first regional government in VW’s home country to take legal action against the automaker.
Bavaria’s state pension fund for civil servants lost as much as €700,000 ($783,580) after VW shares plunged in the wake of the September 18 announcement by US regulators that VW had rigged diesel engines to lower NOx pollution, Auto News reported.
The pension fund lost out from the fall in shares, Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder told German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur today.
“We want this money back,” said Soeder, a member of the Christian Social Union sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
The fund plans to file a lawsuit against VW in September at the regional court of Brunswick, near VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters.
Bavaria is home to German blue-chip companies, including BMW, Siemens and Allianz.
So far, none of Germany’s 16 federal states has taken legal action against VW over the scandal.
