BRAUNSCHWEIG (dpa-AFX) - The billion-dollar test case of investors on the VW diesel affair remains a tough affair - at the beginning of 2023, several dates are cancelled again. Planned hearings for February, March and April have been canceled, as the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Braunschweig announced at the request of Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "It is currently intended to continue the oral proceedings in May 2023," OLG spokeswoman Rike Werner said.

This means that there will be no face-to-face meeting for almost a year in the huge proceedings, which currently have a value in dispute of around 4.34 billion euros. The last meeting was on June 29, 2022. As OLG spokeswoman Werner explained, there are more than 1900 suspended proceedings in connection with the process. The Senate would have to decide on some issues related to this in the context of complaints and appeals. This ties up the Senate's manpower in addition to the further processing of the actual model lawsuit, Werner said.

Following the diesel affair at VW, shareholders are demanding compensation in the lawsuit for share price losses suffered in the billions. The central question: Did VW inform the markets too late? Currently, it is being examined whether there should be a hearing of evidence on the state of knowledge in the VW board about inadmissible defeat devices. According to OLG spokeswoman Werner, the decision on this will have a decisive influence on the further course of events. Extensive hearings of various witnesses are imminent.

In the very tough process, it is difficult to explain to the plaintiffs why these proceedings are taking so much time, said plaintiff's lawyer Axel Wegner to dpa. In view of the fact that there is already a landmark ruling by the Federal Court of Justice on Volkswagen 's liability to vehicle buyers, a little more speed would also be desirable for the investor process.

Volkswagen reacted rather soberly to the renewed delay. The company said it had taken note of the cancellation of the deadlines. "On the merits, Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft stands by its view that it has complied with its disclosure obligations at all times," a spokesman said.

The aim of the process is to have key issues in the original proceedings decided in advance by the next higher instance. If a model decision is available, it is binding for the courts in all proceedings - as provided for in the Capital Investor Model Proceedings Act. The model defendants are Volkswagen and VW's main shareholder Porsche SE, the model plaintiff is Deka Investment. The first of the proceedings was in September 2018./bch/DP/nas