UBS loses €1.1 billion bail challenge in European Court of Human Rights

12 January 2017, the European Court of Human Rights rejected UBS’s challenge to a €1.1 billion security which had been imposed by the French authorities in 2014 in the context of the court supervision of the Swiss bank, which has been placed under formal investigation for alleged illegal direct selling of banking products and aggravated laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud.

In the case of UBS AG v. France (application no. 29778/15), the Court found that the interference to UBS had not been disproportionate and that a fair balance had been struck. In addition, it said UBS had not exhausted potential domestic remedies to the dispute before bringing a case before the Court.

“The Court held that the security required constituted an interim measure which did not prejudge the outcome of the proceedings and that the amount had been assessed by the domestic judges, using particularly thorough reasoning, on the basis of the findings of the investigations, the alleged facts, the scale of the offences and the potential harm, and the fine payable in the event of a conviction,” the European Court of Human Rights said in a statement.

“The assessment had also been based explicitly on the resources of the applicant bank, which had been afforded adequate procedural safeguards,” it noted