Finance boutique law firm Rautner Attorneys-at-law is currently advising several plaintiffs in legal proceedings against HETA Asset Resolution AG (HETA). In the course of one of these proceedings, the Vienna Commercial Court (VCC) recently referred this matter to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling pursuant to a decision dated 13 May 2016. The VCC has asked the ECJ to determine whether the inclusion of HETA as a resolution entity within the scope of The Banking Resolution and Recovery Act, which transposes European Union (EU) law (The Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive) into Austrian law, complies with EU law. This is the first national court that has referred a case to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling on these questions.

Rautner Attorneys-at-law successfully advised the same plaintiff before the Austrian Constitutional Court (ACC) on the HaaSanG, which was repealed by the ACC last year. Since then, Rautner has worked vigorously to bring this case before the ECJ with renewed attention following the recently imposed hair-cut of certain junior and senior debts of HETA. One of the presiding judges in the legal proceedings before the VCC concluded that the legal concerns raised by Rautner on the conformity of the special HETA rules with EU law are reasonable. Therefore, this judge has asked the ECJ to rule on questions that materially correspond to these concerns. A judicial decision is expected within 12 to 18 months.