Volkswagen will not have to compensate consumers who acquired their vehicles only after the company admitted to manipulating its cars, Germany's highest court ruled on Thursday.

The German Federal Court of Justice also ruled that the company will not have to compensate people for vehicles that are deemed to have reached their lifetime mileage, the court said in statements connected to two separate hearings.  

Volkswagen was advised by Freshfields, led by partners Patrick Schröder und Martina de Lind van Wijngaarden, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. 

The rulings come after the court was tasked with deciding on how the buyers of manipulated Volkswagen diesel engines will be compensated. It follows the much publicised diesel emissions-cheating scandal that unravelled in 2015.

In what was first seen as a major blow to the German carmaker, in May the court ordered that Volkswagen pay compensation to the owner of a secondhand VW van fitted with emissions-cheating software, paving the way for 60,000 related claims. 

The mileage ruling may mean consumers will not receive a payment for their vehicle if they have exceeded total expected lifetime mileage, the court said in the first ruling. 

In that case, the plaintiff had purchased a used VW Passat for €23,750 ($28,000). The vehicle, had a mileage of approximately 57,000 km (35,418 miles) and now has a mileage of around 255,000 km. The plaintiff had demanded compensation for the purchase price paid for the vehicle, including interest, in return for handing the car back to VW. 

The court rejected the plaintiff's appeal to a regional court ruling that stated that the plaintiff's claims for damages against the defendant do not exist, due to the purchase price being "eaten up", the court said in the statement. 

In additional rulings, the court said the buyers who purchased their vehicle after September, 2015, when VW had admitted manipulating diesel engines, could not expect compensation. 

Of the 60,000 claims remaining, about 10,000 are attributable to a purchase after September, 2015, a VW spokesperson said in a telephone interview on Thursday. 

In 2015, Volkswagen admitted to having intentionally programmed diesel engines installed in millions of cars globally to skirt U.S. emissions standards.

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