German court rejects bid to ban Mercedes and BMW's fossil-fuel cars

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG

23/03/2026 10:22

KARLSRUHE, Germany, March 23 (Reuters) - Environmentalists suffered a setback on Monday when Germany's top appeals court threw out their cases seeking to ban Mercedes-Benz MBGn.DE and BMW BMWG.DE from selling new combustion-engine cars from November 2030.

The federal court of justice in Karlsruhe upheld lower court rulings against the lawsuits, brought by three managing directors from the DUH environmental lobby

The DUH had based its case on a "carbon budget" calculated for each of the two automakers

But the court ruled that no such budget had been allocated to individual companies

 (Reporting by Ursula Knapp and Rachel More, editing by Thomas Seythal)

 ((rachel.more@thomsonreuters.com))