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This is actively malicious. There had better be criminal charges filed.
by organsnyder 11y ago
This is actively malicious. There had better be criminal charges filed.
- cmurf 11y agoHarm to the consumer via fraud, and to the environment, yes. But corporations almost never see criminal charges. Fuck the environment for 6 years? Pay this fine. Sell some pot? Fuck you asshole go to jail for 3 years.
- bduerst 11y agoWell, for the BP spill at least, people were charged with negligence, but the trial is still under way.
- Amorymeltzer 11y agoAgreed. This somewhat mollifying quote gives hope: >"Using a defeat device in cars to evade clean air standards is illegal and a threat to public health," said Cynthia Giles, the E.P.A.’s assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance.
- organsnyder 11y agoAlso, this: > California, the E.P.A. and the Justice Department are working together on an investigation of the allegations. Though I hold similar pessimism to cmurf. If we can't even bring criminal charges against people that destroy the economy, I don't have high hopes for anyone being charged for destroying the environment (given the difference in priority they're normally given).
- a3n 11y agoI would like to see VW prohibited from selling any vehicles in the US for a small number of quarters. That would be real punishment. All those dealers and salespeople? There are a certain amount of cars that need to be sold. If VW is out of the mix, the demand is still there. The dealers can sell something else. I'm certain that Toyota and Ford can quickly come to some arrangement with those dealers, including any state legal issues.
- zardo 11y agoI expect at the least they are going to get hit with the maximum administrative fine, 37,500 per vehicle.
- McGlockenshire 11y agoThat maths out to somewhere in the ballpark of eighteen billion dollars. In 2012, the EPA issued $252 million in fines, total. Kia & Hyundai were fined $300 million total in 2014. I don't see them hitting VW with eighteen billion. e: Eh, that might not be so unreasonable after all. In 2012, VW made about $28 billion in profit on $250 billion of sales.
- CamperBob2 11y agoIf the cars can't pass smog testing without cheating, then they also need to be forced to buy each and every one of them back. $18 billion sounds reasonable to me. This needs to hurt.
- Asbostos 11y agoI'm sure the patch will allow them to pass the tests. It'll just reduce driving performance as well.
- DanielDent 11y agoLikely true; the problem with that is the owner ends up with a car with lower specs than they agreed to when they bought it. The owner of the car needs to be compensated.
- Shivetya 11y agoit would be an insane judgement seeing how little GM paid out for a defect they willfully hid that led to actual recorded deaths.
- justincormack 11y agoWhich is $18b, so not insignificant. There may also be action in Europe.
- PaulKeeble 11y agoCriminal charges seem like a good plan. But its not sufficient. Volswagen has over a period of time pumped a lot of this gas into the atmosphere and the fine ought to reflect the actual clean up damage. What is it going to cost to remove it and put the environment back to the way it should have been if they hadn't broken the law. That is what these sorts of fines ought to be based on.
- justincormack 11y agoNo fines should be punitive so they dont do it again. It is not about clean up with particulates, it is about their medical effects, which you cant be specific about.
- gpvos 11y agoFines that would really be enough to clean up the environment would probably obliterate the company.