Oklahoma Joins Lawsuits Against VW Over Deceptive Advertising

VW

The state of Oklahoma is one of the latest to join a series of lawsuits against Volkswagen, accusing the car maker of fraud in its Clean Diesel technology. The state is asking for nearly $8 million covering 3,855 registered VW vehicles in the state.

Oklahoma is at least the seventh state to file a civil lawsuit after the Environmental Protection Agency warned of violations last year.

The state filed suit last week in Oklahoma County District Court (CJ-2016-3047), claiming consumers were wrongly swayed by claims that VW had solved an engineering and environmental problem on its cars.

The suit is very similar to one filed by the state of Arizona. It contends Volkswagen equipment several of its cars with software that performed differently during emissions tests and during the test phase, they met federal standards.

“But when the vehicles operated under real-world driving conditions, the emissions control systems effectively disengaged, causing the vehicles to spew pollution, at as much as 40 times the thresholds allowed by U.S. emissions standards,” charged the lawsuit filed by Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

The lawsuit requests $7.7 1million for registered vehicles in Oklahoma. It also seeks another $10,000 per instance if the company violates any legal injunctions in regards the environmental allegations.

A VW spokeswoman is not commenting.