【英语财经】大众汽车或面临上百亿美元新罚款 Volkswagen faces $15bn hit over US green ad campaign

Volkswagen faces billions of dollars in potential new penalties after the top US consumer watchdog hit the carmaker with a lawsuit over its emissions cheating scandal.

The Federal Trade Commission is pursuing compensation for consumers that could rise beyond $15bn, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday seeking the repayment of “ill-gotten monies”.

The FTC alleges that VW systemically deceived customers over seven years with an advertising campaign promoting “clean diesel” vehicles that were in reality much dirtier than government rules permitted.

VW has admitted to equipping up to 11m diesel-powered cars around the world with software that tricked regulators by reducing nitrogen oxide emissions only when pollution tests were under way.

Six months since the scandal broke VW finds itself surrounded by hostile forces itching to punish it, ranging from the FTC and the US Department of Justice to the French government and German prosecutors.

Even before the FTC lawsuit UBS analysts were predicting the scandal would end up costing the carmaker ￠38bn, including ￠10bn in civil penalties and ￠9bn in criminal fines.

“It seems there is no light at the end of the tunnel so far,” said Ingo Speich, portfolio manager of Union Investment, a VW shareholder.

Edith Ramirez, FTC chairwoman, told the Financial Times: “From what we know the conduct here appears to be quite egregious.”

It relates to 550,000 vehicles sold since late 2008. If the FTC secured compensation equal to an average sale price of $28,000 for the vehicles — which would be consistent with past cases — it would add up to more than $15bn.

大众汽车(Volkswagen)可能面临金额达上百亿美元的新罚款，原因是美国最高消费者权益保护机构针对这家汽车制造商的尾气造假丑闻提起了诉讼。

美国联邦贸易委员会（Federal Trade Commission，简称FTC）周二提交的一份寻求让大众汽车偿还“不当得利”的诉状显示，该机构正在为消费者们争取最高或超过150亿美元的赔偿。

FTC指控称，大众汽车在七年的时间里以推介“清洁柴油”汽车的广告活动系统性地欺骗了消费者，这种汽车造成的污染其实大大高于美国政府规定中许可的水平。

大众汽车已承认，其在世界各地多达1100万辆柴油车上安装了一种软件，这种软件只在车辆接受尾气污染物检测时降低车辆的氮氧化物排放、从而骗过监管机构。

在丑闻爆发六个月后的今天，大众汽车发现，它已被各种充满敌意、急于惩罚它的势力所包围，这里面既包括美国的FTC和司法部，也包括法国政府及德国检方。

甚至在FTC提起上述诉讼之前，瑞银(UBS)的分析师就已预测，这起丑闻最终会令这家汽车制造商损失380亿欧元，其中包括100亿欧元的民事处罚和90亿欧元的刑事处罚。

大众汽车股东、联丰投资(Union Investment)资产组合经理英戈?施派希(Ingo Speich)表示：“到目前为止似乎还看不到曙光。”

FTC主席伊迪斯?拉米雷斯(Edith Ramirez)向英国《金融时报》表示：“据我们所致，这里涉及的行为似乎是相当的恶劣。”

这起丑闻涉及2008年底以来售出的55万辆汽车。如果FTC争取到的赔偿与这些汽车平均2.8万美元的售价相当（这种估计符合以往案件的情况），赔偿金额总计将超过150亿美元。

译者/简易