Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 14 November 2018.Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor d.d. v Republika Slovenija.Reference for a preliminary ruling — Approximation of laws — Re-use of public sector information — Directive 2003/98/EC — Article 1(2)(c), third indent — Prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms — Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 — Information to be published by credit institutions and investment firms — Article 432(2) — Exceptions to public disclosure requirements — Information considered commercially sensitive or confidential — Applicability — Credit institutions predominantly owned by the State — National legislation laying down the public nature of certain commercial information held by those institutions.Case C-215/17.

Judgment // 14/11/2018 // 4 min read
bookmark 4 citations

Case C‑215/17

Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor d.d.

v

Republika Slovenija

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Vrhovno sodišče)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Approximation of laws — Re-use of public sector information — Directive 2003/98/CE — Article 1(2)(3), third indent — Prudential requirements applicable to credit institutions and investment firms — Regulation (UE) No 575/2013 — Information to be published by credit institutions and investment firms — Article 432(2) — Exceptions to public disclosure requirements — Information considered commercially sensitive or confidential — Applicability — Credit institutions predominantly owned by the State — National legislation laying down the public nature of certain commercial information held by those institutions)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber), 14 November 2018

Approximation of laws — Re-use of public sector information — Directive 2003/98 — Scope — Bodies governed by public law — Concept

(European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/98, as amended by Directive 2013/37, recital 10 and Art. 2(2)(a) to (c))

Approximation of laws — Re-use of public sector information — Directive 2003/98 — Scope — Applicability of a request for access to information held by a private commercial bank providing banking services on the national banking market — Precluded

(European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/98, as amended by Directive 2013/37, Art. 1)

Economic and monetary policy — Economic policy — Supervision of the EU financial sector — Prudential requirements applicable to credit institutions and investment firms — Information to be published by credit institutions — No individual right of access to information

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 575/2013, Art. 431(1) and (3), Art. 432(2) and Art. 433, first para.)

Fundamental rights — Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Scope — Implementation of EU law — Dispute confined within a single Member State — Absence of indications as to the existence of an interest on the part of operators in other Member States in making use of the fundamental freedoms in question — Not included

(Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 51(1))

Economic and monetary policy — Economic policy — Supervision of the EU financial sector — Prudential requirements applicable to credit institutions and investment firms — Information to be published by credit institutions — Directive 2003/98 on the re-use of public sector information — Scope — National legislation laying down the public nature of certain commercial information available to credit institutions predominantly owned by the State — Not included

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 575/2013, Art. 432(2); European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/98, as amended by Directive 2013/37, Art. 1(2)(c), third indent)

See the text of the decision.

(see para. 28)

See the text of the decision.

(see paras 31-33)

See the text of the decision.

(see paras 35, 36, 39)

See the text of the decision.

(see paras 40, 41, 44, 45)

Article 1(2) (c), third indent, of Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information, and Article 432 (2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, must be interpreted as not applying to national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, requiring a bank which has been under the dominant influence of a body governed by public law to disclose information on contracts provided for consultancy and legal services, copyright contracts and other services of an intellectual nature that it concluded during the period in which it was under that dominant influence, with no exceptions on the ground of protecting of that bank’s business secrets and, accordingly, as not precluding such national legislation.

(See para. 46 and operative part)