Action brought on 3 June 2020 — Galván Fernández-Guillén v SRB
(Case T-340/20)
Language of the case: Spanish
Parties
Applicant: José María Galván Fernández-Guillén (Madrid, Spain) (represented by: M. Romero Rey and I. Salama Salama, lawyers)
Defendant: Single Resolution Board (SRB)
Form of order sought
The applicant claims that the General Court should:
annul Decision SRB/EES/2020/52 of 17 March 2020 determining whether compensation needs to be granted to the shareholders and creditors in respect of which the resolution actions concerning Banco Popular Español SA have been effected;
order the SRB to pay the costs of the proceedings.
Pleas in law and main arguments
In support of his action, the applicant relies on four pleas in law.
First plea, alleging infringement of the fundamental right to private property, in that Banco Popular had, at the time of the resolution, a positive net worth, which did not justify the applicant being deprived of his shares without compensation.
Second plea, alleging infringement of the right to property, in that no clear valuation criteria were applied in granting the resolution of Banco Popular, since the new criteria approved by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/344 1 which only came into force on 29 March 2018 — that is, eight months after the resolution of Banco Popular — were applied retroactively.
Third plea, alleging a lack of impartiality on the part of Deloitte in carrying out Valuation 3, on which Decision SRB/EES/2020/52 relied exclusively, given that the same auditing company carried out Provisional Valuation 2.
Fourth plea, alleging infringement of the rights of the defence, in that the SRB continues to keep certain information confidential and hidden from the shareholders and creditors of Banco Popular, on the pretext that ‘the disclosure thereof may infringe the Board’s rights of defence in the ongoing litigation’.
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1 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/344 of 14 November 2017 supplementing Directive 2014/59/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the criteria relating to the methodologies for valuation of difference in treatment in resolution (OJ 2018 L 67, p. 3).