VW emissions: Online questionnaire for aggrieved parties
Bern, 02.09.2019 - Within the framework of the criminal proceedings being conducted by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) in connection with VW’s manipulation of emission values, the vehicles owners concerned can now register as aggrieved parties using an online questionnaire in order to assert their rights in the proceedings. With the online questionnaire, the OAG has found an innovative solution for informing the enormous number of aggrieved parties, up to 175’000 persons, of their rights, and for registering the claims they may have.
Since December 2016, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) is conducting criminal proceedings against Volkswagen AG in Germany and against AMAG Import AG (formerly AMAG Automobil- und Motoren AG) on suspicion of corporate criminal liability (Art. 102 para. 1 Swiss Criminal Code [SCC] in conjunction with Art. 146 SCC) and against the responsible management bodies and employees of AMAG Import AG on suspicion of commercial fraud (Art. 146 para. 1 and 2 SCC). The suspects are alleged, between 2008 and 2015 in Switzerland – with at least partial knowledge that emission test values had been manipulated – to have caused unspecified financial losses to around 175’000 purchasers and leasing customers of vehicles of VW Group brands with Type EA 189 diesel engines. A list of the vehicle models potentially involved can be found at the start of the online questionnaire at www.ba.admin.ch.
First criminal proceedings in Switzerland with up to 175’000 aggrieved parties
According to Art. 118 para. 4 of the Criminal Procedure Code [CrimPC], the OAG, as the competent prosecution authority, has to notify the aggrieved parties of their party rights and of the possibility of becoming a criminal and/or civil litigant in these criminal proceedings. Because of the enormous number of aggrieved parties – around 175’000, unprecedented in criminal proceedings in Switzerland – the OAG has developed an innovative solution in the form of an online questionnaire to record and process the potential criminal and/or civil litigants with reasonable effort.
Remarks in connection with these criminal proceedings
As explained in the press release issued by the OAG on 9 December 2016 the OAG forwarded in April 2016 around 2’000 criminal complaints to the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig in connection with a request to transfer the prosecution to Germany. The prosecutor in Braunschweig is conducting criminal proceedings there in connection with the around 11 million vehicles concerned worldwide. Against the OAG’s decision in May 2016 not to conduct separate proceedings against VW in Switzerland, an appeal was filed with the Federal Criminal Court (FCC). The FCC upheld the appeal in November 2016 and instructed the OAG to open related criminal proceedings, which the OAG subsequently did. In December 2016, the OAG secured more than 1 terabyte of data from the AMAG Group, which has been cooperative throughout the proceedings. Since then around 1.8 million documents have been examined and analysed as part of a complex and resource-intensive process. A request for mutual legal assistance made to the German authorities in January 2017 has so far remained unanswered.
The unique dimensions of this case require time-consuming and resource-intensive measures that do not in themselves offer any indication of the prospects of success of the criminal proceedings. The presumption of innocence applies to all suspects.
Further information on the questionnaire
The questionnaire may be completed online or by hand and is available in German, French, Italian and English. The questionnaire can be found online on the OAG website www.ba.admin.ch. Once completed, a confirmation can be printed out and sent to the OAG by registered mail (postal address: Office of the Attorney General, “VW”, Werdstrasse 138+140, 8036 Zurich). Printed copies of the questionnaire may also be requested from this postal address by registered mail marked “VW”.
The questionnaire records the details of the person and vehicle concerned as well as details of the person’s eventual legal representation, their claims arising from the alleged offence and possible party rights. In addition, the questionnaire includes information and a declaration on rights. To complete the form, the registration document for the vehicle concerned with chassis or vehicle identification number is sufficient. In order to participate in the criminal proceedings as a criminal and/or civil litigant and to assert party rights, persons concerned must submit the duly completed questionnaire by no later than 11 October 2019.
Address for enquiries
Communication Service of Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, info@ba.admin.ch
Publisher
Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland
http://www.ba.admin.ch/
