Italy's antitrust authority launches investigation into VW scandal

The Italian antitrust authority opened an investigation into Volkswagen (VW) for possibly misleading Italian consumers who have bought diesel cars from the German automaker, the body said on Friday.

The inquiry into VW and its subsidiary in Italy resulted "also from complains filed by a number of consumer associations," the authority explained in a statement.

The hypothesis for investigating concerned a possible "improper commercial practice in selling cars and commercial vehicles with qualities and emission standards that would actually be below the declared values," the antitrust body said.

Some 648,458 vehicles were overall involved in the scandal in Italy, according to data released by the German company earlier this week.

More specifically, they were 361,432 VW cars, 197,421 Audi, 38,966 Skoda, 35,348 Seat, and 15,291 VW commercial vehicles, the company said.

They will all be recalled to undergo revision.

The Italian antitrust body said its investigation against improper commercial practice would concern "several types of vehicles sold by Volkswagen Group between 2009 and 2015, with VW, Audi, Seat, and Skoda brands."

"Consumers may have been misled in their purchases by the claims on emissions and type approval standards used by Volkswagen within their advertising campaigns and informational brochures distributed by dealers and retailers," it added.

Last month, VW acknowledged cars with Type EA 189 engines had been equipped with a device able to temporarily reduce emissions during official testing in the United States and Europe.

The cheating practice involved up to 11 million diesel cars worldwide, the company admitted.

The scandal raised much concern among Italian authorities for a possible "ripple effect" on Italian VW suppliers, and on the country's economy overall. Endit