European Commission Knew About Emission Issues In 2011

German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, has alleged that the European Commission (EC) was tipped off as early as 2011, about the dieselgate emissions scandal.

The German weekly magazine has stated that it had seen documents which show that an automotive supplier told the EC as early as 2011 that carmakers were cheating on emission levels.

When the commission failed to act, officials frustrated with the lack of action against the wrongdoers, passed the information to the US-based International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) who reported their findings to the United States government.

The ICCT has confirmed that the news of the emissions fudging was sent to them by EC officials but have denied that they were specifically informed about Volkswagen's involvement. They stated that they had discovered the problem of excessive emissions in VW cars as part of a general test of diesel vehicles.

The use of the cheat devices was brought to light after the California Air Resources Board and the US Environmental Protection Agency did follow up investigations of their own after looking into the results of the test conducted by the ICCT.