Savings Law Journal
INSIGHTS
COMMENT ON JUDGMENT N. 12007/2024: WHAT FUTURE FOR CASES ON THE NULLITY OF EURIBOR CONTRACTS? [*]
By the lawyer. Andrea SORGENTONE*
As is known, the Antitrust Commission of the European Commission, with the decisions made on 4/12/2013 and 7/12/2016, ascertained that the Euribor rates quoted in the interval between 29/9/2005 and 30/5 /2008 were manipulated by Barclays Bank Plc, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Credit Agricole, JP Morgan, RBS and Societè General.
They seem distant in time but are very current, as the Court of Cassation, first with order no. 34889/2023 and then with the very recent sentence no. 12007 of 3/5/2024, reiterated that contracts indexed with Euribor rates, stipulated both by companies and private individuals, and as long as by Public Bodies (States, Regions, Provinces and Municipalities) which were the real objective of the manipulation, pushing them through the rise in rates to cover their exposures with derivatives which, following the sudden drop in rates in the second half of 2008, produced billions in profits (in euros) in favor of the manipulating banks, which are case among the top 10 banks in the world for quantity of derivatives and which in those years doubled or even tripled the stock of contracts, all circumstances which can be demonstrated by producing independent studies and macroeconomic data from third-party bodies.
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[*] Contribution approved by referee.
[**] Lawyer.
