Volkswagen settlement of nearly $15 billion approved by judge

A federal judge has approved the largest auto-scandal settlement in U.S. history, giving nearly half a million Volkswagen owners the choice between selling their cars back or having them repaired so they don’t cheat on emissions tests and spew excess pollution.

The settlement calls for the company to spend up to $10 billion to buy back or repair those vehicles’ engines and pay their owners an additional $5,100 to $10,000 each.

Blair Stewart, a 2012 Jetta wagon owner in Palo Alto, said Volkswagen should have paid owners the full purchase price of their vehicle, given the company’s fraud.

“Final approval of the 2.0L TDI settlement is an important milestone in our journey to making things right in the United States,” Hinrich Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America Inc. said in a statement.

The lead attorney for car owners, Elizabeth Cabraser, said in a statement that the deal “holds Volkswagen accountable for its illegal behavior and breach of consumer trust.”

The company said in April that it has set aside $18.2 billion to cover the cost of the global scandal, which erupted in September 2015 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had fitted many of its cars with software to fool emissions tests.

The EPA alleged the scheme let the cars spew up to 40 times the allowable limit of nitrogen oxide, which can cause respiratory problems in humans.