A court in Russia has ordered Volkswagen to pay millions in damages to its former business partner GAZ.

The judges set the amount of the payment at 16.9 billion roubles (equivalent to just under 180 million euros), as reported by the Interfax agency. GAZ had originally demanded 28.4 billion roubles in compensation for lost profits due to Volkswagen's withdrawal from the Russian market. GAZ and Volkswagen initially did not respond to the request for comment.

GAZ worked as a contract manufacturer for Volkswagen and produced the Wolfsburg carmaker's vehicles at its plant in Nizhny Novgorod. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Volkswagen stopped the cooperation. As a result, GAZ launched a series of lawsuits against Volkswagen, seeking millions in damages. Among other things, the company demanded compensation because engines were no longer supplied. However, a lawsuit filed by GAZ for the freezing of assets in Russia was dismissed.

Volkswagen had stopped production at GAZ in Nizhny Novgorod and at its plant in Kaluga, south of Moscow, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The plant was sold in May 2023 after months of back and forth with the authorities.

(Report by Alexander Marrow and Gleb Stolyarov, written by Christina Amann. Edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)