Volkswagen Emissions Litigation- Problem for BOSCH too

One of several plaintiffs’ law firms pursuing legal action in Volkswagen AG’s emissions-testing scandal has sent a “document preservation” letter to another German industrial giant, Robert Bosch GmbH, asking executives there to retain documents that could pertain to emissions-related components supplied to Volkswagen.

The move could raise further scrutiny of the privately held German auto-parts maker, following its disclosures last month that it made components related to emissions systems in the Volkswagen diesel engines at issue. Volkswagen said roughly 11 million diesel cars, including about 500,000 in the U.S., had emissions-cheating software called a “defeat device.” The software allowed cars to produce lower emissions when being tested by regulators.

Document-preservation letters are a routine legal maneuver by attorneys weighing how broadly to cast their net in litigation. Motley Rice LLC, a South Carolina-based law firm that issued the letter, hasn’t named Bosch in its own litigation, which is seeking damages from Volkswagen for a number of clients.

Bosch said last month it had supplied Volkswagen with a number of components, including common-rail injection and exhaust-gas treatment systems, containing both hardware and software. But it has said that Volkswagen and other auto makers bear responsibility for how those components are integrated into their cars. It isn’t clear whether Bosch provided Volkswagen with the software at the heart of the scandal, or whether any of the Bosch-built components interacted with the software.

“How these components are calibrated and integrated into complete vehicle systems is the responsibility of each auto maker,” the Stuttgart-based company said.

Still, questions over how the software worked and who was responsible for installing it have spilled over to include Bosch. German newspapers have reported that Bosch told Volkswagen in a 2007 letter that the use of Bosch-made software to manipulate car emissions was illegal. Volkswagen declined to comment Friday on the reports.

Bosch declined to comment Friday on the letter from Motley Rice, and it said it can’t comment on any exchange between it and Volkswagen.

“Due to obligations toward our customer to observe confidentiality, we cannot divulge any information about our business relationship with Volkswagen,” a spokesman said.

The Motley Rice letter asks Bosch to retain “all potential evidence” related to the issue, including documents and electronic data related to “every generation of diesel emissions software and logic design, installed or utilized in any of the individual vehicles.”