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It was learned from relevant sources that south Korean antitrust regulators imposed a fine of 20.2 billion won (about 107 million yuan) on Mercedes-Benz and its Korean subsidiaries for false advertising of diesel vehicle emissions.
According to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), Mercedes-Benz tampered with emissions test data by installing illegal software on the vehicle, making it perform lower in normal driving conditions than during the certification test. A total of 15 models were fitted with illegal software, the report said.
At the same time, Mercedes-Benz also falsely advertised that the emissions of its vehicles between August 2013 and December 2016 met the EU Level 6 emission standards. It is reported that in 2020, Mercedes-Benz's Korean subsidiary was fined a huge fine of 77.6 billion won (about 411.2 million yuan) for tampering with the emission data of 37,154 diesel vehicles sold between 2012 and 2018.
South Korean regulators split the matter in two, after fining Mercedes-Benz for data modifications in South Korea, and on Monday the regulator continued to pursue responsibility from another angle. In order to promote the above 15 models, Mercedes-Benz appeared in the company's product catalog, magazines and press releases and public advertisements between August 2013 and December 2016, saying that the NOx emissions of these vehicles were very low and fully compliant with Euro 6 emission standards, and marked that the products complied with the "Korean Atmospheric Environment Law". The KFTC believes that this move will "influence consumers to make reasonable decisions, thereby undermining a fair market order", so it imposes another fine from the perspective of false publicity and believes that this is "by no means a simple exaggeration and deception".
However, Mercedes-Benz does not recognize the above survey, saying that 90% of vehicles in South Korea will drive for less than 30 minutes, while the company added that the "SCR reduction of nitrogen oxides by 90%" in advertisements and brochures is a common expression in the automotive industry and academia, and does not mislead the public, SCR is the abbreviation of "selective catalytic reduction technology".
Volkswagen was first exposed in Germany for using this cheating method, and Volkswagen admitted that it intervened in vehicle emissions through specially developed software, so that it could achieve compliance results when doing product certification or testing. However, during normal driving, the actual emission of exhaust gases is 10-14 times higher than the standard, and more than 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide have installed this software, which has cost Volkswagen a huge price, attracting year after year of regulatory investigations and lawsuits, in 2016 Volkswagen spent 25 billion yuan and U.S. consumer settlements, Volkswagen's chief financial officer confirmed that Volkswagen's expenditure was 2.3 billion euros in 2019 and 2.9 billion euros in 2020. In May last year, Germany's Supreme Court ruled that Volkswagen Group must pay civil compensation to consumers who suffered losses due to "emission gates" and buy back vehicles with the above emission problems at a discount. In addition, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and other countries have also followed up the investigation and punishment of emission gates, Volkswagen previously counted that the total amount of fines imposed by Volkswagen Group for the "emission gate" incident has exceeded 30 billion euros.
This is the end of a survey of five car companies in South Korea related to emissions gates. Last year, South Korea fined Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan, Stellantis and Porsche for similar emission manipulation incidents. Mercedes-Benz south Korea said it had not yet received an official document and therefore had not responded to the penalty decision.