Porsche, Fiat face multimillion-dollar payouts in separate diesel scandals

Enlarge / The Porsche logo is seen during the New York International Auto Show on April 18, 2019 in New York, United States. (credit: Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, Germany’s Stuttgart Public Prosecutors’s Office issued a fine notice of €535 million ($598.99 million) to Porsche for its part in the Volkswagen Group diesel emissions scandal that broke in 2015.

Until recently, German authorities have been reserved in their actions against the VW Group brands—Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche—that installed illegal software on their diesel vehicles to conceal the true amount of nitrogen oxides emissions that were released during real-world driving. Instead, US authorities have been at the forefront of pursuing VW Group and its executives in attempts to make cheated customers and citizens whole.

But in April, German prosecutors filed their first criminal indictment of VW Group executives, including former CEO Martin Winterkorn.