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![handle is hein.journals/uvsyocd89 and id is 1 raw text is:
WHY YOU SHOULD BE UNSETTLED BY
THE BIGGEST AUTOMOTIVE
SETTLEMENT IN HISTORY
SARAH DADUSH*
INTRODUCTIONt
In September 2015, the world learned that Volkswagen
(VW) had rigged millions of its clean diesel vehicles with
illegal software designed to cheat emissions tests.1 Tests
carried out with the cheat device indicated that the cars were
as clean as advertised; however, tests carried out without the
cheat device revealed that the cars in fact emitted up to forty
times the legal limit of polluting nitrogen oxides.2 The fraud,
which some have taken to calling Dieselgate, lasted for over
seven years.3 When affected owners learned that their cars
were much more toxic than advertised, what were they upset
about? Was it that their cars were now worth fewer dollars,
or was it that they had been deceived into being bad global
citizens when they thought they were being good?
Coverage of Dieselgate strongly suggests that affected
car owners experienced both kinds of disappointment-
economic and noneconomic-and in heavy doses at that.4 But
* Associate Professor, Rutgers Law School.
t Editor's note: This short Essay, prepared specifically for the University of
Colorado Law Review Forum, introduces topics and ideas addressed at greater
length in Professor Dadush's forthcoming article, Identity Harm, 89 U. COLO. L.
REV. (forthcoming 2018).
1. Amended Partial Consent Decree, In Re Volkswagen Clean Diesel
Mktg., Sales Practices, & Prod. Liab. Litig., MDL No. 2672 CRB (JSC), 2016 WL
6460404, (N.D. Cal. Sept. 30, 2016) (No. 1973-1), at 1-5, https://www.epa.gov/
sites/production/files/2016- 10/documents/amended20lpartial-cd.pdf
[https://perma.cc/G8FT-32U5] [hereinafter First Consent Decree].
2. Guilbert Gates et. al, How Volkswagen's Defeat Devices' Worked, N.Y.
TIMES (Mar. 16, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/business/
international/vw-diesel-emissions-scandal-explained.html?mcubz=0&_r=0
[https://perma.cc/JMW9-XRYL].
3. VW Scandal: Company Warned Over Test Cheating Years Ago, BBC (Sept.
27, 2015), http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34373637 [https://perma.cc/D2EA-
FZPF].
4. Jad Mouawad & Christopher Jensen, The Wrath of Volkswagen Drivers,
N.Y. TIMES (Sept. 21, 2015), http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/business/the-
wrath-of-volkswagens-drivers.html [https://perma.cc/J72R-NB82]; Jacob Bogage,](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/uvsyocd89&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)