Editing Industrial espionage (section)

===Volkswagen===
In 1993, car manufacturer [[Opel]], the German division of [[General Motors]], accused [[Volkswagen]] of industrial espionage after Opel's chief of production, [[José Ignacio López de Arriortúa|Jose Ignacio Lopez]], and seven other executives moved to Volkswagen.{{sfn|Reuters|1996}} Volkswagen subsequently threatened to sue for defamation, resulting in a four-year legal battle.{{sfn|Reuters|1996}} The case, which was finally settled in 1997, resulted in one of the largest settlements in the history of industrial espionage, with Volkswagen agreeing to pay General Motors $100 million and to buy at least $1 billion of car parts from the company over 7 years, although it did not explicitly apologize for Lopez's behavior.{{sfn|Meredith|1997}}