Conflicts of interest
Mr. Hans Dieter Pötsch was a member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG until October 2015. His move to the Supervisory Board had already been planned irrespective of the diesel issue. In order to avoid conceivable conflicts of interest, Mr. Pötsch always left the meeting room prior to discussions and resolutions adopted by the Supervisory Board that might relate to his conduct in connection with the diesel issue. In particular, Mr. Pötsch did not participate in the Supervisory Board meetings on April 27, 2020 and May 12, 2020, in which we discussed the status of the criminal proceedings against the Chairman of the Supervisory Board and the Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG on suspicion of violation of the Securities Trading Act in connection with the diesel issue. Mr. Pötsch left the room when additional information was provided on this topic at the Supervisory Board meeting on May 28, 2020. At the meeting of the Supervisory Board on February 28, 2020, Mr. Pötsch and Mr. Stephan Weil did not take part in the deliberations and resolution on the termination of the proceedings brought by the Verbraucherzentrale für Kapitalanleger e.V. against resolutions of the 2017 Annual General Meeting approving the actions of Mr. Pötsch and Mr. Weil among other Board members.
Starting in autumn 2016, the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig launched criminal investigations against a number of individuals relating to remuneration granted to the Chairman of the General and Group Works Councils of Volkswagen AG Mr. Bernd Osterloh, and other works council members that might have been excessive under the provisions of the Betriebsverfassungsgesetz (BetrVG – German Works Constitution Act). In order to avoid conceivable conflicts of interest, Mr. Osterloh always left the meeting room prior to discussions and resolutions adopted by the Supervisory Board that related to remuneration granted to him that might have been excessive under the provisions of the German Works Constitution Act. This included the Supervisory Board meeting on September 25, 2020, for example.
No other conflicts of interest were reported or were discernible in the reporting period.