大衆汽車或面臨上百億美元新罰款

Volkswagen faces billions of dollars in potential new penalties after the top US consumer watchdog hit the carmaker with a lawsuit over its emissions cheating scandal.

大衆汽車(Volkswagen)可能面臨金額達上百億美元的新罰款，原因是美國最高消費者權益保護機構針對這家汽車製造商的尾氣造假醜聞提起了訴訟。

The Federal Trade Commission is pursuing compensation for consumers that could rise beyond $15bn, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday seeking the repayment of “ill-gotten monies”.

美國聯邦貿易委員會（Federal Trade Commission，簡稱FTC）週二提交的一份尋求讓大衆汽車償還“不當得利”的訴狀顯示，該機構正在爲消費者們爭取最高或超過150億美元的賠償。

The FTC alleges that VW systemically deceived customers over seven years with an advertising campaign promoting “clean diesel” vehicles that were in reality much dirtier than government rules permitted.

FTC指控稱，大衆汽車在七年的時間裏以推介“清潔柴油”汽車的廣告活動系統性地欺騙了消費者，這種汽車造成的污染其實大大高於美國政府規定中許可的水平。

VW has admitted to equipping up to 11m diesel-powered cars around the world with software that tricked regulators by reducing nitrogen oxide emissions only when pollution tests were under way.

大衆汽車已承認，其在世界各地多達1100萬輛柴油車上安裝了一種軟件，這種軟件只在車輛接受尾氣污染物檢測時降低車輛的氮氧化物排放、從而騙過監管機構。

Six months since the scandal broke VW finds itself surrounded by hostile forces itching to punish it, ranging from the FTC and the US Department of Justice to the French government and German prosecutors.

在醜聞爆發六個月後的今天，大衆汽車發現，它已被各種充滿敵意、急於懲罰它的勢力所包圍，這裏面既包括美國的FTC和司法部，也包括法國政府及德國檢方。

Even before the FTC lawsuit UBS analysts were predicting the scandal would end up costing the carmaker