Conflicts of interest

At its meeting on November 17, 2016, the Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board addressed major shareholder business relationships. The Executive Committee members were guided exclusively by the interests of the Company when voting. No material conflicts of interest were discernible in this respect. In this context, the Executive Committee granted approvals to transactions with the State of Lower Saxony. Executive Committee member Mr. Stephan Weil is Minister-President of the State of Lower Saxony and abstained from voting.

Mr. Hans Dieter Pötsch was a member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG until October 2015. His move to the Supervisory Board had already been planned irrespective of the diesel issue. In order to avoid conceivable conflicts of interest, Mr. Pötsch does not participate in adopting Supervisory Board resolutions that might relate to his conduct in connection with the diesel issue. Consequently, Mr. Pötsch also did not vote on the resolution adopted by the Supervisory Board at its meeting on May 10, 2016 on the proposed resolution to the Annual General Meeting concerning formal approval of the actions of the members of the Board of Management for fiscal year 2015.

No other conflicts of interest were reported or were discernible in the reporting period.