The Italian Council of State is the highest Italian instance of administrative law; it has surprisingly confirmed the decision of the Lazio Administrative Court (TAR) 6920/19, which in turn had rejected Volkswagen's appeal against a decision by the Italian competition authority (AGMC). The AGMC had sentenced VW AG to pay a fine of €5,000,000 for deceiving consumers in the Dieselgate case. The German car manufacturer argued that it had already been fined €1,000,000,000 in Germany for the same offence and that it could not be punished twice ("nebis in idem"). The ECJ (C 27/22 of 14/09/2023) ruled in favour of him in principle, so it was expected that the Italian Council of State would overturn the decision that was detrimental to Volkswagen.

The Italian supreme judges stood firm and explained in their detailed judgement of 22 March 2024 (2791/2024) that the consumer had been deceived in any case, even if vehicle directions had claimed that they had never advertised nitrogen values, and that in view of the difference between the facts of the case in Germany and the Italian case, it could not be assumed that the facts of the case were the same.