Action brought on 22 November 2023 – Slovak Telekom v Commission
(Case T-1092/23)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicant: Slovak Telekom, a.s. (Bratislava, Slovakia) (represented by: J. Azud, lawyer)
Defendant: European Commission
Form of order sought
The applicant claims that the Court should:
order the European Union, represented by the Commission, to pay to the applicant the compensation in the amount of EUR 112,525.77 for the harm suffered or, in the alternative, if the compensation in this amount is not granted by the Court, then order the European Union, represented by the Commission to pay to the applicant other compensation in the amount deemed appropriate by the Court;
order the European Union, represented by the Commission, that the compensation awarded by the Court to the applicant shall be increased by default interest per annum at the rate set by the European Central Bank for its principal refinancing operations at the date of filing of this application, increased by three and a half percentage points, starting from the date on which the applicant brought this action to the Court and continuing until its full payment by the Commission or, in the alternative, if such default interest is not granted by the Court, then order the European Union, represented by the Commission that the compensation awarded by the Court to the applicant shall be increased by another sum of default interest deemed appropriate by the Court;
order the European Union, represented by the Commission to pay the applicant’s costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
In support of the action, the applicant relies on one plea in law, alleging that according to the decision in cases Deutsche Telekom v Commission,1 Printeos v Commission2 and related decisions to which these judgements refer, the proper execution of the annulling decision of the General Court under Article 266(1) TFEU shall also include the payment of the default interest to the applicant by the Commission. This means that after a portion of the fine imposed by the Commission on the applicant was annulled, the Commission was, under Article 266(1) TFEU, obliged to repay to the applicant not only the annulled portion of the fine in the amount of EUR 776,037, but also the default interest related to the repaid fine.
The failure to repay such default interest by the Commission represented a serious infringement of Article 266(1) TFEU and established the non-contractual liability of the European Union pursuant to Article 266 (2) TFEU, read in conjunction with Article 340(2) TFEU, and entitles the applicant to file this application under Article 268 TFEU for the compensation of the occurred harm consisting of unpaid default interest.
The applicant alleges that, contrary to the objection of the Commission, the applicant’s right to the payment of default interest is not affected by Article 90(4)(a) of the Delegated Regulation,1 and the amount of the default interest shall be calculated by analogy to Article 83(2)(b) of the Delegated Regulation.
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1 Judgment of 19 January 2022, Deutsche Telekom v Commission (T-610/19, EU:T:2022:15).
1 Judgments of 12 February 2019, Printeos v Commission (T-201/17, EU:T:2019:81) and of 20 January 2021, Commission v Printeos (C-301/19 P, EU:C:2021:39).
1 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012 of 29 October 2012 on the rules of application of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (OJ 2012 L 362, p. 1).