Car maker Volkswagen has been ordered to pay €1,500 in compensation to the owner of a second hand vehicle because the car had been fitted with software which disguised how polluting it was.

According to the Dutch consumers association Consumentenbond, this is the first time in the Netherlands that the company has been ordered to pay cash to a second-hand Volkswagen owner.

It is also the third in four trial cases brought by the association and an owners’ lobby group. In two earlier cases, Volkswagen was also ordered to pay a total of €6,000 to the owners of cars which had been bought new. The fourth case will be heard in September.

Volkswagen admitted in 2015 that it had sold some 11 million cars worldwide which had been fitted with software which let them appear to be less polluting than they actually were in laboratory tests.

In 2021, a Dutch court ruled that everyone who had bought a diesel Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda which had been fitted with the software was entitled to compensation.

That case was brought by Stichting Car Claim, a dedicated foundation set up by lawyers and members of motoring organisations including the ANWB.