The famous car manufacturer Tesla is attacked by a German consumer association for inadequate data privacy on its electric cars and misleading claims about CO2 emission reductions.

The powerful German consumer protection association VZBV, one of the country’s leading associations, said on Tuesday, 19 July, that it had “filed a lawsuit against Tesla at the Berlin court.”

In the statement, VZBV sounds the alarm about the cameras of Elon Musk’s electric cars.

Practically none of Tesla’s customers are informed that using the sentry mode, in which cameras monitor the car’s surroundings, is contrary to European data privacy laws, VZBV believes.

More seriously, we can find in the manufacturer’s new models that cameras film what happens inside and outside to allow surveillance of the vehicle at rest.

Logically, users of this function “should obtain the consent of passers-by in the vicinity of the car for the processing of their data,” said Heiko Dünkel, head of litigation at VZBV.

So there is no way to comply with data protection rules while using the feature, and drivers “risk fines,” Dünkel added.

According to the association, the manufacturer Tesla has also deceived its customers with advertisements that boast the climate benefits of buying its cars.

Tesla’s transfer of “emission credits” to competing companies meant that other carmakers could “emit more”, which was not made clear to buyers, according to the consumer association.

The American company Tesla set up its first European factory this year on the outskirts of Berlin. The carmaker wants to produce some 500,000 vehicles a year there eventually.