CELEX: 62022TN0112
Language: en
Date: 2022-03-02 00:00:00
Title: Case T-112/22: Action brought on 2 March 2022 — Svenska Bankföreningen and Länsförsäkringar Bank v Commission

10.5.2022   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 191/31
            
         
      Action brought on 2 March 2022 — Svenska Bankföreningen and Länsförsäkringar Bank v Commission
      (Case T-112/22)
      (2022/C 191/40)
      Language of the case: English
      
         Parties
      
      
         Applicants: Ideella föreningen Svenska Bankföreningen med firma Svenska Bankföreningen, Näringsverksamhet (Stockholm, Sweden), Länsförsäkringar Bank AB (Stockholm) (represented by: P. Hansson, M. Eriksson and M. Persson, lawyers)
      
         Defendant: European Commission
      
         Form of order sought
      
      The applicants claim that the Court should:
      
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                  annul the Commission’s decision of 24 November 2021 in Case SA.56348(2021/N) — Sweden: Swedish tax on credit institutions; (1)
                  
               
            
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                  order the Commission to pay the costs.
               
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
      
      In support of the action, the applicants rely on a single plea in law, alleging that the European Commission infringed the applicants’ procedural rights, in that it failed to initiate a formal investigation procedure.
      It is argued that the Commission objectively faced serious difficulties during the preliminary examination of the notified measure and should have initiated the formal investigation procedure. For example:
      
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                  The applicants allege that the Commission failed to take into account the fact that the parameters of the reference system identified by the Commission were clearly not consistent with the objective of the risk tax.
               
            
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                  The applicants further maintain that the Commission failed to take into account the fact that the credit institutions that fall inside or outside the scope of the risk tax are in a comparable legal and factual situation, in the light of the objective of the tax system.
               
            
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                  In addition, it is argued that the Commission misapplied the case-law of the Court of Justice, when assessing the threshold for taxation.
               
            
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                  The applicants also argue that the Commission failed to take into account the fact that there was no justification of the difference in treatment and that it was under no circumstances proportionate.
               
            
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                  Finally, the applicants assert that the examination carried out by the Commission during the preliminary examination procedure was insufficient and incomplete.
               
            
         (1)  COM(2021) 8637 final and see publication in OJ 2021 C 511, p. 2.