The decision will affect the owners of almost half a million of cars, Voice of America reports.
The US federal judge ordered Volkswagen AG to pay the record amount – 14.7 million dollars – for settlement of the largest car scandal in US history.
On Tuesday, in San-Francisco, California, District Judge Charles Breyer took the decision, permitting the owners of about 475 thousand Volkswagen and Audi cars with two-liter four-cylinder diesel motors to require their buyback, starting from the next Tuesday.
The agreement, which Judge Breyer called “just, reasonable and sound”, became the last episode of the scandal, which started when in September 2015 Volkswagen found that it resorted to fraud in order the car emission diagnostics results looked more acceptable than in reality.
The car emissions, which became the subject of the scandal, exceeded the legally established norms (sometimes – 40 times).
According to settlement conditions, the German car manufacturer will spend up to USD 10 billion on buyback of vehicles and compensation to owners. Volkswagen should also spend other 4.7 billion on programs of compensation of excessive emissions and other projects of clean transport vehicles.
