The court of Karlsruhe rejected a request from VW to suspend an audit

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The German constitutional Court has rejected an appeal lodged by Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) to a suspension of the work of the independent auditors designated to conduct an investigation into the behaviour of the management in the framework of the “Dieselgate”.

The court has not issued judgment on the merits of the appeal of VW, which believes that the appointment of a firm by a court of first instance was a violation of his human rights, but dismissed the appeal of the German manufacturer.

“The constitutional complaint has been filed is not, nor, a priori, acceptable, or no longer so obvious,” writes the court in its judgment of five pages, dated 20 December, to which Reuters had access. But she adds that VW has not “convincingly demonstrated the need for an immediate decision”.

A regional court has appointed in November an independent audit, a victory for groups of shareholders who seek to know if the bosses of VW informed quickly enough about the investors of the potential magnitude of the financial damage caused by this case.

The right German stock requires companies to publish any information likely to have an impact on the market in a timely manner.

Volkswagen has recognized September 20, 2015 have installed prohibited software on hundreds of thousands of diesel vehicles in the United States to reveal their emissions are less polluting than they are actually in testing.

In the aftermath of this confession, the group’s market capitalization has shrunk by several billion euros, but the title was down the day after, the 22nd of September, when Volkswagen has admitted that the problem of diesel engines was not only the United States, but approximately 11 million vehicles around the world.

Soon after the outbreak of the scandal, VW has hired a legal firm Jones Day and a consultancy group Deloitte to conduct an investigation on the misconduct alleged and the perpetrators.

Although he is committed to more transparency, the group has never published the findings of the survey that was the basis of a mutual agreement of $ 4.3 billion (3,58 billion euros) with the american justice.

Volkswagen says that its management has met its obligations of disclosure to investors. A spokesman referred to the investigation of Jones Day, as well as a statement of facts released by u.s. authorities in which the automaker acknowledged to have manipulated the tests.

(Hans Seidenstücker, Juliette Rouillon for the French service)