French court rejects Volkswagen bid to dismiss 'dieselgate' charges

PARIS (Reuters) -The Paris Court of Appeal on Wednesday rejected a request by Volkswagen to dismiss charges of deception in a diesel emissions investigation in France, the German carmaker said.

Volkswagen had argued it could not be charged a second time, having already been hit with a 1 billion euro ($1.1 billion) fine in Germany in the same case in 2018.

Volkswagen admitted in 2015 that about 11 million cars worldwide were fitted with software that cheated diesel emissions tests designed to limit nitrogen oxide (NOx) car fumes between 2009 and 2015.

The so-called "dieselgate" scandal sparked the biggest business crisis in the company's history, costing the German company more than 32 billion euros in vehicle refits, fines and legal costs as it triggered legal cases in several countries.

Volkswagen, as it responded to the Paris court's decision, said it would continue to challenge the court's finding.

($1 = 0.9482 euros)

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, additional reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely, Kirsten Donovan)