LONDON — Volkswagen is staking out an aggressive response to its emissions-testing crisis in Europe, where most of the affected vehicles were sold, by essentially saying: We didn’t cheat here.

The company’s system to trick, or “defeat,” pollution tests, which VW has admitted installing in millions of vehicles globally, “is not a forbidden defeat device” under European rules, a company spokesman said in a statement to The New York Times.

The company’s determination, which was made by its board, runs counter to regulatory findings in Europe and the United States. German regulators said last month that VW did use an illegal defeat device.

VW executives have already admitted to using the illegal software to cheat on emissions testing in the United States, where regulations are tougher. About 500,000 affected diesel cars were sold in America. But Europe is home to more than 8.5 million affected vehicles, making the risk of litigation and regulatory sanctions potentially costly.