The customer can opt for repair, replacement, price reduction or termination of the contract.

Owners of vehicles with falsified emissions whose purchase has been made up to two years can claim back the amount paid on the purchase. ? The assurance was given by the Automobile Sector Arbitration Centre (CASA). According to the same entity, Portuguese law has protection for all types of buyers and individual consumers have a wider legal protection, especially those with vehicles within the two year warranty period.

What to do? The cars that are within this warranty period must report to the seller (not the manufacturer) that they acknowledge that the purchased vehicle is not in accordance with the purchase agreement because the statements made in the sale and the description of the property does not match what it It is. Also may use a four-legal mechanisms: repair, replacement (for an equal vehicle, but without the problem detected), the appropriate price reduction or termination of the contract, with the consequent car return and receipt of value paid on the purchase, not being expressly law concerning the timing of this contract annulment.

Should the consumer choose to terminate the contract, the Civil Code provides that all pass as if the contract had not been awarded: one party delivers the vehicle and the other party pays the amount he received.

If consumers opt for the repair or replacement of the vehicle, the seller has 30 days to make them, counting the period from the date of the complaint. If the timing is not met, the seller is subject to a process of offense to instruct the ASAE which can lead to fines between 250 euros and 2500 euros, if the seller is a natural person, or EUR 500 5000 euros if it is a legal person.

In cases where the vehicle purchase has been made for more than two years already outside the scope of the law of guarantees, consumers have rights under the Consumer Protection Act, which states that the supplier of goods must inform the Consumer clear, objective and appropriate manner about its features.

This obligation to inform also encompasses the producer, manufacturer, importer and all who are in the production chain to the supply of goods, the law foreseeing the consumer’s right to seek compensation for damages to the car seller and producer.

Prove damages in court can be a difficult task, according to the House, but in the case of Volkswagen vehicles there is already an advantage, “it is that for the producer, seems to be proven breach of the duty of information because the brand itself has already taken to produce data that are not true. ”

In addition to these specific rules for the consumer, within or outside the law guarantees, the Civil Code establishes rules for companies or individual entrepreneurs with regard to the sale of defective things, provides for the repair and replacement of vehicles with tampered equipment.

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