Judgment of the General Court of 23 May 2019 – Steinhoff and Others v ECB

(Case T-107/17) ¹

(Non-contractual liability – Economic and monetary policy – ECB – National central banks – Restructuring of the Greek public debt – Involvement of the private sector – Collective action clauses – Mandatory exchange of Greek bonds – Private creditors – Opinion of the ECB – Sufficiently serious breach of a rule of law conferring rights on individuals – Principle of pacta sunt servanda – Article 17(1) and (2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights – Article 63(1) TFEU – Article 124 TFUE)

Language of the case: German

Parties

Applicants: Frank Steinhoff (Hamburg, Germany), Ewald Filbry, (Dortmund, Germany), Vereinigte Raiffeisenbanken Gräfenberg-Forchheim-Eschenau-Heroldsberg eG (Gräfenberg, Germany), Werner Bäcker (Rodgau, Germany), EMB Consulting SE (Mühltal, Germany) (represented by: O. Hoepner and D. Unrau, lawyers)

Defendant: European Central Bank (ECB) (represented by: O. Heinz and G. Várhelyi, acting as Agents, and H.-G. Kamann, lawyer)

Re:

Application on the basis of Article 268 TFEU seeking restitution of the loss allegedly suffered by the applicants due to the fact that the ECB failed, in its Opinion of 17 February 2012 (CON/2012/12), to draw the attention of the Republic of Greece to the unlawful nature of the proposed restructuring of the Greek public debt by a mandatory exchange of bonds.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders Mr Frank Steinhoff, Mr Ewald Filbry, Vereinigte Raiffeisenbanken Gräfenberg-Forchheim-Eschenau-Heroldsberg eG, Mr Werner Bäcker and EMB Consulting SE to pay the costs.

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¹ OJ C 129, 24.4.2017.