Volkswagen shares gained on the Frankfurt stock exchange Friday, as two favourable court decisions related to the car giant's long-running "dieselgate" emissions scandal comforted investors.

Shares in the group added 0.9 percent just after 0900 GMT to trade at 126.50 euros ($150.50), against a DAX index of leading German shares up 0.5 percent.

In the United States, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Thursday against the state of Wyoming, which had claimed billions of dollars from VW for its diesel vehicles' infringement of environmental laws, newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

Judge Charles Breyer found that VW's settlement of the case with federal authorities made compensation to individual states unnecessary.

Some 600,000 of VW's 11 million vehicles worldwide fitted with software designed to cheat regulatory emissions tests were sold in the US.

The Wolfsburg-based group has already agreed to pay around $22 billion (18.5 billion euros) in fines and compensation in the US to settle the diesel scandal, with some of the cash flowing to the states where the cars were used.

"Volkswagen is pleased with the court's decision to dismiss Wyoming's claims," a spokesman told AFP.

"Importantly, the court recognised that any environmental harm in Wyoming or similarly-situated states has been fully mitigated by settlements with the federal government," he added.

The group will immediately seek to have similar suits from nine other states dismissed, the spokesman said, filing motions as early as Friday against Illinois, Minnesota and Ohio.

In VW's home country Germany, a court in Brunswick rejected a case from a driver who had asked that the full 41,000-euro purchase price of his diesel-fuelled Eos car be reimbursed.

The case was backed by US law firm Hausfeld and German firm Myright, which aimed to establish a precedent in favour of around 100,000 clients with similar complaints.

A lawyer for the driver in the Eos case said he planned to appeal the judgement.

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New emissions test necessary for new vehicles in the EU
Washington (UPI) Aug 31, 2017
Starting Friday, all new car models in the European Union need to pass emissions tests in real driving conditions before they hit the road, commissioners said. The European Commission invited member states to examine emission issues after Volkswagen in 2015 was found to have used software to get around some pollution standards. In response, the commission introduced stricter and more ac ... read more

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