Porsche facing €4bn Volkswagen lawsuits The spike in VW's shares made it the most valuable company in the world. Yesterday the share price was back nearer ground level, down slightly on the day's trading at €111.80. However, investors may not find their case easy to prove. An initial hearing on some of the smaller claims started yesterday. It emerged that the claimants will need to prove Porsche used "vicious behaviour" in dealing with the issue in 2008. The statement by the presiding Judge Stefan Puhle effectively demands a very high level of evidence before the case against Porsche can be proved. Five cases are due to be heard in the German town of Braunschweig covering similar claims. Yesterday's hearing involved two claims amounting to less than €5m. Further suits will be heard involving claims of €350m, €1.8bn and €2bn. All of them allege that Porsche manipulated the share price of VW in its 2008 bid by putting out false statements to the market. As well as the high level of proof required, the claimants face another problem. Despite being obliged to prove wrongdoing on Porsche's part they have little or no access to the car manufacturer's internal documents under German law. The case is being seen by many as a defining moment in the career of Ferdinand Piech, a 74-year-old scion of the Porsche family. Controlling large swathes of Porsche equity, the deal to combine the two companies is viewed as his life's ambition. Whether the claims succeed or not they have had huge impact, effectively derailing Porsche's bid to take over VW. If the cases succeed things will get more painful still.