Brussels, 16/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - A national legislation may not allow a bank to invoke banking secrecy to an unlimited and unconditional extent as grounds to refuse to provide information about the name and address of the holder of an account which is suspected of selling counterfeit goods, the Court of Justice of the EU stated in a judgment (case C-580/13) returned on Thursday 16 July.
The judges reached the same conclusion as the Advocate General, in April of this year, in this case relating to German legislation on banking secrecy (see EUROPE 11296). They took the view that this legislation is worded so vaguely that it appears - and it is the responsibility of the German courts in charge of the case to verify this - to give the banks unlimited scope to refuse to provide information requested regarding an individual suspected of carrying out counterfeiting activities. A situation of this kind is likely to scupper the correct application of the directive on intellectual property rights and thereby to breach the fundamental right to effective legal remedy and the fundamental rights to intellectual property. (Jan Kordys)