The German Transport Ministry (KBA) has threatened to ban Fiat, Chrysler and Jeep models from the country entirely in an ongoing spat with FCA, the German paper Bild am Sonntag reports. The ministry reportedly discovered emissions test tampering software in a number of diesel Fiat models that deactivated the emissions control devices after 22 minutes of operation; the typical emissions test monitors emissions output for just 20 minutes.

Following this discovery, FCA representatives were called by German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt to appear before a German government committee to respond to the findings, but they failed to appear. Bild reports that, in response, the ministry has threatened to halt sales of FCA vehicles in the country.

"We believe all our vehicles respect EU emissions standards and we believe Italian regulators are the competent authority to evaluate this," FCA said in a statement.

The response alludes to EU homologation rules, which require cars to be certified for emissions in their country of origin only -- in this case, Italy.

The spat with the ministry has done damage to FCA's shares on the Milan stock market, which reportedly registered a 5 percent drop.

While the KBA has not publicly released data on the cars it believes possess suspect software, the cancelation of a meeting did prompt Dobrindt to criticize FCA publicly, calling the automaker "uncooperative."

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