Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler has been hit with an €870 million (roughly $960 million) fine as part of a settlement with German prosecutors over the automaker’s own diesel cheating scandal. The fine comes in at the lower end of what was expected earlier this year.

The news comes just about four years to the day after Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal was exposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and California’s Air Resources Board. Volkswagen’s massive emissions cheating scandal, which affected 11 million cars worldwide, kicked off several investigations and lawsuits that helped uncover similar efforts at automakers like Daimler to skirt regulations on diesel vehicles.

Germany’s motor authority found that some 280,000 Mercedes-Benz C-class and E-class vehicles had been outfitted with software that made them look cleaner than they were during testing, similar to the grift that Volkswagen had pulled (though on a smaller scale). That led to a wider recall of some 700,000 affected vehicles around the world last year. Daimler also had to recall 60,000 GLK SUVs for the same issue earlier this year. The extent of Daimler’s cheating is still unknown, as an investigation by the US Department of Justice and a class action lawsuit in New Jersey are still ongoing.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/24/20881603/daimler-dieselgate-mercedes-benz-emissions-cheating-fine