German Judge Reinhard Saathoff has refused to strike down some rules in VW’s charter that protect the voting rights of the state of Lower Saxony, which owns 20.1 percent of VW. Porsche’s goal is owning 100 percent of the German mass car maker, Volkswagen. In order to achieve that goal, Porsche had targeted the rule that allows shareholders with at least 20 percent of shares in VW to be able to overturn major company decisions.

Exact reasons for why Porsche wishes to gain power over the Lower Saxony’s voting rights is unclear. One of the theories evolves around Porsche’s wish to limit union power at VW. On the other hand, the federal government is fully supportive of this law, which both it and the unions see as some sort of guarantee of job safety at VW. 

Apparently, Porsche’s claim stems from a ruling by the European Union court on a German law court which had similar standards on voting rights.

“The VW law and the charter aren’t the same and we cannot treat them the same,” Saathoff said at a hearing. “If Porsche would interpret a ruling of my court as it did interpret the EU court ruling, I would be pretty mad.”

[Source: worldcarfans]