Report: Volkswagen agrees to pay $14.7 billion to settle U.S. diesel scandal claims

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last updated 28 June 2016

Volkswagen has agreed to pay almost $15 billion to settle lawsuits in the United States stemming from its rigging of diesel emission tests beginning in 2009, sources told Bloomberg.

Under the settlement, which will be filed Tuesday in San Francisco, the automaker will pay $2.7 billion in fines to the U.S. Environmental Protecting Agency and the California Air Resources Board and spend $2 billion on clean-emissions technology, plus set aside $10.03 billion to buy back cars from customers at pre-scandal values and to give owners as much as $10,000 per car for their trouble.

The vehicles were emitting more pollutants than allowed under U.S. and California law, and if the deal is approved by a judge, car owners will have to either surrender their vehicles or agree to have them fixed to meet emissions standards. Volkswagen is still facing criminal and civil actions in other jurisdictions, and a source told Bloomberg the company is expected to settle claims with other states, including New York, for about $400 million.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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