Case T-424/22: Action brought on 11 July 2022 — D’Agostino and Dafin v ECB
Date: 2022-07-11
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: financial loss, liability, loss, operation of the Institutions, president of an institution, press release, price of securities, securities, single monetary policy








C_2022340EN.01005001.xml










5.9.2022   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 340/50






Action brought on 11 July 2022 — D’Agostino and Dafin v ECB
(Case T-424/22)
(2022/C 340/69)
Language of the case: Italian

Parties


Applicants: Vincenzo D’Agostino (Naples, Italy) and Dafin Srl (Casandrino, Italy) (represented by: M. De Siena, lawyer)

Defendant: European Central Bank

Form of order sought

The applicants claim that the Court should:






—


find and declare that the European Central Bank (ECB), represented by the President Christine Lagarde is non-contractually liable:






(a)


for having caused a collapse in the value of the securities owned by Vincenzo D’Agostino titled SI FTSE.COPERP amounting to a loss equal to the entire value of the capital invested, namely EUR 450 596,28, in so far as, on 12 March 2020, Christine Lagarde, in her capacity as President of the ECB, used the infamous phrase ‘We are not here to close spreads, this is not the function or the mission of the ECB’ and thereby caused a significant reduction in the value of securities on stock exchanges around the world and a reduction of 16,92 % on the Milan Stock Exchange, namely in a percentage never before seen in the history of that institution, or on other stock exchanges around the world; the phrase was used in a press conference broadcast globally, and confirmed that the ECB would no longer guarantee the value of securities issued by countries in difficulty and, therefore, signalled a massive change in the direction of the monetary policy that had been adopted by the ECB under the presidency of Mario Draghi, whose mandate finished in November 2019;










(b)


for having caused a reduction in the value of the applicant’s assets through that conduct and as a result of the huge drop in the index of the Milan Stock Exchange;










(c)


for having required him, as a result of the substantial and significant reduction in the value of the applicant’s assets, in order to offset that reduction in his assets, and as guarantor for the company Dafin Srl in respect of the credit line available to that company by Banca Fideuram SpA, to extinguish the part of that credit line that had been used, which meant that it was provisionally necessary for him to sell other securities he owned within a ridiculous timescale and thereby suffer a loss of EUR 2 534 422,16 in 2020 and subsequently of EUR 336 517,30 between January 2021 and 15 April 2021 and, therefore, a total loss of EUR 2 870 939,30;










(d)


for causing material damage in the form of loss of profit in the amount of EUR 1 013 074,00;










(e)


for having consequently caused a total amount of material damage in the amount of EUR 4 334 609,28;














—


order the ECB, in the person of the President:






—


to provide compensation for material damage (including both actual loss and loss of profit), non-material damage and damages from loss of opportunity suffered by the applicant Vincenzo D’Agostino, assessed according to the criteria set out in the relevant chapters and paragraphs of the present application, by making payments in the following amounts: (i) EUR 4 334 609,28 for material damage, (ii) EUR 1 000 000 for non-material damage, (iii) and, therefore, a total payment in the amount of EUR 5 321 535;










—


in the alternative, to pay amounts of different sizes to be assessed during the proceedings, to the extent that they are upheld by the Court, or by recourse to an expert’s report to be obtained by the Court under Article 70 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Court of the European Union;










—


to pay the latter sum which the Court shall determine and assess to be equitable compensation for damage in the form of loss of opportunity;










—


in addition, to pay default interest to be calculated from 12 March 2020, the date of the event that gave rise to the damage, to the date on which the compensation is actually paid;














—


order the defendant to pay the legal costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on four pleas in law.






1.


First plea in law, alleging that the ECB is liable under the third paragraph of Article 340 TFEU and Article 2043 of the Codice civile (Italian Civil Code) for the material and non-material damage suffered by the applicant himself and in his capacity as a shareholder in Dafin Srl.










2.


Second plea in law, which refers to principles established in the case-law of the European Union, in particular in the judgments of 28 October 2021, Vialto Consulting v Commission (C-650/19 P, EU:C:2021:879), of 9 February 2022, QI and Others v Commission and ECB (T-868/16, EU:T:2022:58) and of 21 January 2014, Klein v Commission (T-309/10, EU:T:2014:19).
The applicant sets out the circumstances in which an EU institution can incur non-contractual liability vis-à-vis an EU citizen and alleges that those circumstances are present in this case.










3.


Third plea in law, alleging an infringement by the ECB of primary and secondary EU law and abuse of power by the President.
The applicant alleges that, on 12 March 2020, the ECB, acting through its President, infringed Article 127 TFEU under Chapter 1, which is headed Monetary Policy, Articles 3, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 38 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, and Article 17.2 and 17.3 of the Rules of Procedure adopted by a decision of the ECB on 19 February 2004. (1)











4.


The fourth plea in law quantifies, substantiates and documents the material damage suffered by the applicant (actual loss and loss of profit).






(1)  Decision 2004/257/EC of the European Central Bank of 19 February 2004 adopting the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank (ECB/2004/2) (OJ 2004 L 80, p. 33), as amended by Decision ECB/2014/1 of the European Central Bank of 22 January 2014 (OJ 2014 L 95, p. 56).