The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday ruled in favor of Volkswagen in a lawsuit filed by 45 people who alleged that the carmaker's rigging of fuel emissions data worsened air pollution and public health. They sued for W300,000 per person in compensation (US$1=W1,118).

Volkswagen lied about the emissions of 125,000 cars sold in Korea. The Environment Ministry says that diesel cars rigged up with software that overrides controls produced 31 times more air pollutants than the carmaker claimed.

Volkswagen compensated the owners over false mileage claims but took no responsibility for the extra air pollution the cars caused.

The court sided with the German carmaker because the claimants were not owners of Volkswagen cars themselves and failed to show how their personal interests had been hurt by the scandal.

Volkswagen agreed to spend US$14.7 billion in compensation in the U.S. last year. But in Korea Volkswagen recalled the affected cars and spent W270 billion on coupons worth W1 million for 270,000 Volkswagen owners, just around 1/10 of the money American customers got.

The reason was probably that U.S. law is more favorable to damage claims.

