April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] A Korean court on Dec. 14 ruled against a request of Volkswagen and its affiliate Audi that a hefty fine, imposed on the local unit of the German automakers two years ago for false advertisements on its fabricated emissions results, be canceled.

The Seoul High Court ruled that there was no problem with the Fair Trade Commission’s imposition of a record 37.3 billion won (US$33 million) fine in 2016 on Audi VW Korea for producing false advertisements for its cars to cover up fabricated emissions results.

At that time, the government watchdog accused AVK of falsely advertising that its models met the tightened European emission standards from 2008-2015 and its diesel-powered cars were highly energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

But the group filed a lawsuit, claiming that the FTC‘s fine should be canceled.

It was the largest fine imposed by the FTC for false advertising, surpassing the previous record of 2 billion won set in 2002.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)