South Korea's ministry of environment announced on Tuesday it was filing a lawsuit against the head of Audi Volkswagen Korea. This legal action further ignites the recent issues filed against the renowned German automaker concerning their emissions-cheating vehicles.
The environment ministry said the suit is targeted against Johannes Thammer, managing director of Audi Volkswagen Korea, after reportedly submitting a plan to recall the affected vehicles but with no certain measures provided.
According to auto parts maker, Bosch, as cited by Reuters, South Korea is the world's eight-biggest diesel car market. Reportedly, around 70 percent of foreign auto sales in the country are diesel engine vehicles. Volkswagen and Audi top the list in the imported car sales ranking with their combined sales, hitting 17% to 68,316 automobiles last year.
After South Korea conducted its own emissions tests in November, it has fined the German automaker of 14.1 billion won ($11.7 million) and purportedly ordered a recall of more than 125,000 vehicles.
On Jan. 6, Volkswagen has reportedly submitted a proposal to fix the affected vehicles. However, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the plans were unacceptable as it failed to explain why the problem occurred and how it would be fixed. The government said the recall plans should have indicated how the car maker would improve emissions results and maintain fuel efficiency after removing the cheating software.
According to Wall Street Journal, Volkswagen has already issued an apology to its Korean consumers. The company has also released a statement assuring that they are doing their utmost effort to resolve the emissions-cheating issue.
Thammer and Thomas Kuehl, VW's high-ranking officials, now face multiple legal actions filed by several countries after it admitted in September to cheating emissions test on its diesel engine vehicles. It has also been noted that this is the first time the government of Korea has filed a suit against the German company.
Under Korean environment law, conviction to this offense renders punishment of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 30 million won.
