Not sure what you're referring to. Chapter 11 is a form of reorganization in bankruptcy in US law.

Volkswagen AG (i.e. the VW Group) is an EUR85 billion German company that - despite the massive fines and recall - has been consistently profitable, with a small loss in 2015 due to the aforementioned issue and earned ~EUR12 billion in net profit last year.

”Under EU rules, a trader must repair, replace, reduce the price or give you a refund if goods you bought turn out to be faulty or do not look or work as advertised.”

So, the manufacturer, in the EU, never has anything to do with the consumer, legally.

I think a trader could successfully argue they didn’t advertise the device as secure, that the user didn’t suffer from it or, for devices that are out of warranty, that they don’t need to correct this issue anymore. claiming that it wasn’t ‘faulty’ could be harder, but I’m sure they would try. If a vulnerability isn’t known, is it a fault? Depends on whether its cause was generally known, I would think.

"The legal guarantee covers any defects presumed to have existed at the time of delivery and which become apparent within a period of two years. However, the crucial period is the 6 months after you bought your product:"

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/gua...

So I'm assuming the bulk of older phones would no longer be covered?

Since when? Economic theory explains that they are expected to do no more than that, or else they'd leave money on the table.

You'd only need to do it once to set a precedent, and everyone can get their phones fixed or replaced. The problem is that the law applies to the retailer, not to the manufacturer. As I didn't buy my phone direct, I'd have to get the retailer to replace it, and as I went to a high street retailer who is suffering from competition from Amazon etc, and closing branches, it feels bad to give the problem to them.

If I'd bought the phone from the manufacturer direct, from Amazon, or from a phone network, I'd gladly go ahead with the action because those retailers would have enough clout that the manufacturer would care about loosing their business.

https://www.gov.uk/make-money-claim

I've done it myself and got paid by an intransigent phone retailer relatively promptly after that point. My lawsuit was about a contractual dispute rather than faulty goods though.