Volkswagen faces €8.2 billion in damages claims from investors over its emissions scandal in the legal district where the carmaker is based, a German court said today.
About 1,400 lawsuits have been lodged at the regional court in Braunschweig near Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters, the court said.
The Braunschweig court said it received some 750 lawsuits on Monday alone, which marked the first business day after the anniversary of VW's diesel emissions test-rigging scandal.
It said it brought in extra staff to process suits submitted by shareholders concerned September 18 - the day VW's manipulations were disclosed a year ago - could be the deadline to file.
Plaintiffs say the German carmaker did not inform shareholders quickly enough over its cheating software, which was installed in up to around 11 million vehicles wordwide.
VW, which faces lawsuits and investigations across the world, has consistently said it did not break capital markets regulations in the disclosure of its cheating.
The biggest claim at the Braunschweig court, totalling €3.3 billion, was filed by lawyer Andreas Tulip on behalf of institutional investors around half a year ago.
The court detailed additional complaints today. These included a filing by institutional investors for €30m in damages, two investor groups demanding €1.5 billion and €550m respectively and an investment company that sued the carmaker for €45m.
It would take about four weeks to fully process the additional claims, the court said.
Complaints have also been filed by German state pension funds.
Volkswagen has so far set aside about $18 billion to cover the cost of vehicle refits and a settlement with US authorities, but analysts think the bill could rise much further as a result of lawsuits and regulatory penalties.
