France launches emissions-cheating probe into Volkswagen - source

PARIS (Reuters) - France has launched a probe into whether Volkswagen cheated on car emissions in France as it did in the United States, a source close to the French Economy Ministry said on Wednesday. "Following the recognised fraud of a carmarker in the United States ... There is a probe from the DGCCRF (the Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control) that started on Friday and whose goal is to assess if Volkswagen had similar practices (in France)," the source said. The DGCCRF probe, which covers vehicles' software devices, will later be extended to all other carmakers who sell vehicles in France, the source said. Results from the probe are expected at end-November or in December. The world's biggest carmaker by sales has admitted to U.S. regulators that it programmed its cars to detect when they were being tested and alter the running of their diesel engines to conceal their true emissions. Volkswagen said on Wednesday there were 946,092 vehicles in France equipped with the EA 189 engines affected by the emissions data manipulation carried out by the company worldwide. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by David Holmes)