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GER - Volkswagen threatens billions of Prevention lawsuit – Economy

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- The Prevent group agrees with the Volkswagen Group.
- VW has recently rescinded several orders without notice, which apparently the large car supplier does not want to endure.
- Currently, a lawsuit is being prepared for damages. said a spokesperson for Prevent.

By Max Hägler and Klaus Ott

Volkswagen is challenged on many fronts at the same time. There is a challenge to build green cars. Will the big corporation take a turn in time? There is a former truck cartel in which the subsidiary MAN participated. Truck buyers, who are said to have paid excessive prices, demand a large amount of money. There is a scandal of emissions with complaints from the owners of the vehicles. And with claims for damages from many shareholders amounting to almost ten billion euros for loss of the price of their papers. This lawsuit of billions has been in the court for a long time. And another will arrive soon.

That too. As if Volkswagen no longer had enough problems.

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The Prevent group, known two years ago for a violent and unusual conflict with VW, is again in a bind with worry. Or vice versa The group includes many companies that supply automobile manufacturers with parts of all types, including Volkswagen. In turn, VW has rescinded several orders without prior notice, which Prevent can not accept. A spokesman for Prevent said on demand that an action for damages was being prepared and that it would be filed immediately after it was completed. "This will happen next time." The industry is talking about two billion euros. The exact height is not yet fixed, says the Prevent spokesman. But one thing is clear: the demand "will lie in the billions."

In addition to a criminal complaint for "fraud in default." Because VW never intended to comply with an agreement with prevention companies.

The next problem for Volkswagen. An old anger that revives. And that with the behind. Prevent the permanent investor family Hastor, who is not very apprehensive (which, conversely, also applies to VW). In the summer of 2016, the Prevent Group had paralyzed the main VW plants with some of its suppliers. Because the Hastors felt wrong and deceived. A large and very sensational strike of delivery against one of the powerful automotive companies; no provider had dared to do that before. That had something of David against Goliath.

Information requirement

There is another facet in the dispute between VW and the provider. Prevention: The Volkswagen Group has spied on the business partner. The law firm of VW Hogan Lovells had hired a detective agency, which should preemptively take all kinds of people from Prevent and the Hastor family under a microscope. Now Prevent's attorneys at Hogan Lovells have requested information on which employees have been investigated. In fact, spies have the legal right to be informed of any file, no matter how it arose; If necessary, they can insist on cancellation. This possibility is provided by the Federal Data Protection Law, according to the office of the Federal Data Protection Commissioner. However, a collection of data can sometimes be justified. With this, VW argues: In a "predicament", research on Prevention has been commissioned to obtain more transparency about its structures. The new head of VW, Herbert Diess, has initiated a review of the search methods. So far, however, there is no evidence of legal violations, says VW. SZ

Now it starts again. And nothing, unlike 2016, suggests an agreement. VW declares that the billion bill announced is from the Group's perspective "on any basis". In 2016, it was placed in a precarious position due to an "illegal delivery stop" by the subsidiaries of Prevent ES Guss and Car Trim. Just because of the difficult situation at that time, it meant that the production stop at VW works, one had insisted on a fundamental document on greater cooperation with the Prevent group. "The fact that we consider that the agreement is subject to compensatory measures was communicated to the Prevention Group from the beginning".

Therefore, there is no "cheating fraud". VW and Prevent, which probably do not fit anymore. The Nijaz Hastor business group in Bosnia-Herzegovina was the reason for this group of rebel companies decades ago. Meanwhile, the sons Kenan and Damir, who live in Lower Saxony, are the directors of the widely branched companies. For many years, the Hastors were in close contact with VW, as "Provider of the year" they received. But then Volkswagen's orders were comparatively rare, and the conditions were unpleasant. The Hastor family resisted in a radical way: in 2015, the prevention companies in Brazil asked for better conditions and stopped the delivery.

In 2016, the same happened in Germany; with the companies Prevent Car Trim and ES Guss, which produce covers for seats and gear parts. The delivery is stopped by Prevent, factory closure at VW in Wolfsburg, urgent requests in court, negotiations. And then, in August 2016, an agreement; that was enforced from the perspective of VW. And against the Volkswagen according to its own account only now, after building other sources of supply, it can continue. With the immediate termination of supply contracts. VW estimates that the 2015 delivery strike in Brazil led to 160 production stops at three Brazilian plants there. "18,000 employees were under compulsory license, which resulted in the loss of 140,000 vehicles and hundreds of millions in financial losses." This pattern has been repeated in Germany in 2016.

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"The relationship of trust has suffered through these massive and sustained events".

Hastors can be represented by the law firm Bub, Gauweiler and their partners. He has fought for the family and for the partners of the late media mogul Leo Kirch of Deutsche Bank 925 million in damages. After more than a decade of dispute in court. Now it is against Volkswagen.

Source: infoglitz.com

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