The German justice sentenced Monday Volkswagen to partially repay a customer who had purchased a car equipped with a diesel engine rigged, in a judgment which is expected to influence tens of thousands of procedures five years after the explosion of this scandal.

By equipping its cars software to make them appear cleaner than they are in reality, the automotive group of germany has "cheated knowingly and systematically for several years" the authorities "in a perspective of profitability," explained the judge Stephan Seiters.