Luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz has been fined KRW 20.2 billion (€14.9 billion) by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), the South Korean antitrust watchdog, for lying about emissions in some of its diesel vehicles.
This is not the first time Mercedes has been in legal trouble for supposed emissions rigging. Credit: Mike / Pexels (Licence: CC0)
The watchdog has accused the automaker of tampering with its vehicles' emissions mitigation systems so that they appeared less polluting, enabling them to cheat emissions tests.
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The vehicles - of which only around 15 models were affected - would operate at lower emissions levels during tests in order to get certification while releasing far greater levels of carbon dioxide during regular driving.
The company installed software into the cars which allowed them to cheat during these trials.
The watchdog decided the case was severe enough to warrant a significant punishment.
"It is meaningful to impose sanctions against the country's No.1 imported car sales operator for obstructing consumers' rational purchase choices with false and deceptive advertisements about its emission reduction performance even after the Dieselgate scandal", the KTFC said in a statement.
The German automaker was claiming its model reached the Euro 6 certification for emissions between August 2013 and December 2016.
Since that time, Mercedes has taken the climate crisis a little more seriously, recently unveiling a long-range EV, while also making strides in autonomous driving.
However, this is hardly the first controversy the automaker has been embroiled in. Daimler, Mercedes' parent company, was sued by customers in July 2021 for cheating on emissions tests.
In fact, several key automakers have found themselves in legal trouble for supposedly lying about emissions tests. Volkswagen and BMW were sued by EU antitrust regulators for colluding on emissions-cleaning technology. although the two firms stated the results of their talks were never implemented and the EU found no evidence to support its claims.
VW also sued its own former CEO over the dieselgate scandal, which has caused the automaker to lose over €30 billion in legal fees, compensation and fines.
Even the newly-formed Stellantis has faced an uphill legal battle in Europe, being sued by the Netherlands for diesel emissions.
Read more: The Netherlands files complaint against Stellantis over diesel emissions
The KTFC has reportedly gone after some of these companies too.
Reuters claims it has imposed fines or corrective actions for Nissan, Audi-VW, Nissan and Porsche for emissions rigging.
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