Overview

• Hannover’s public prosecutor confirmed that the absence of the required signature on its appeal filing nullified the case and extinguished the €4.3 million penalty.
• The fine stemmed from alleged breaches of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation in the Diesel scandal probe, including insufficient staff notification over data shared with US monitor Larry Thompson.
• Volkswagen won its first-instance challenge at the Hannover Regional Court in February, and the unsigned appeal prevented any review by the Celle Higher Regional Court.
• The CDU group in Lower Saxony’s parliament condemned the oversight as a scandal and has demanded a discussion in the state legal affairs committee.
• An administrative court nonetheless upheld the key data protection reprimand, and Volkswagen has already spent more than €32 billion on legal costs since the Diesel scandal emerged in 2015.