Walless has successfully defended the interests of Luminor Bank in the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The Court of Justice of the European Union was approached by the Vilnius Regional Court, which was hearing a case on the Luminor Bank’s offering of index-linked bonds to four individual investors.
According to Walless, most of the disputes between the Luminor bank and its clients concerning the alleged mis-selling of index-linked bonds were closed several years ago. This case was the last attempt to overrule the precedent established by the Lithuanian courts.
The CJEU was asked to issue a preliminary ruling related to a number of EU Directives and Regulations, including those concerning investment services, consumer rights protections, market abuse, information contained in prospectuses.
According to Walless, on May 16, 2019 the CJEU ruled in favor of Luminor. In its preliminary ruling the CJEU supported the position of the bank and explained that several of the EU Directives the national court referred to did not apply due to time constraints. In addition, the CJEU refused to accept and analyze other EU legal acts, because the national court failed to substantiate the relevance of the acts to the case.
Walless reports that the interpretation of the CJEU "provides valuable insights on the application of the relevant EU laws on investor protection and related matters."
The Walless team consisted of Partner Joana Baublyte-Kulviete and Associate Partner Lina Radaviciene.