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SWITZERLAND

Bank Austria ordered to pay East German cash

Switzerland's top court on Thursday ordered Bank Austria to pay Germany €254 million following a legal battle dating back to the fall of the Berlin Wall two decades ago.

Bank Austria ordered to pay East German cash
Photo: DPA

The ruling, upholding an earlier verdict by a lower court, concerns the transfer into a Swiss bank of €128 million from the communist East Germany after the impoverished country’s demise in 1990.

This transfer by Rudolfine Steindling, a colourful Austrian communist dubbed “Fini the Red” who died last year, was conducted by a former subsidiary of Bank Austria, itself now part of Italy’s UniCredit.

In the 1990s Germany, by then reunified, complained that Steindling had no right to the money, which was amassed by East Germany charging fees from Western firms investing there, and that Bank Austria knew this.

In March 2010, a Swiss court in Zurich ruled in favour of the German state and ordered the bank to pay the €128 million plus five percent interest dating back to 1994.

Since East and West Germany were reunified in 1990, the country has launched dozens of lawsuits in various jurisdictions to try to recover money stashed by the former regime.

Bank Austria said Thursday that it has already set aside sufficient money to repay the money, except for €70 million, and that it now planned new legal proceedings against Germany.

AFP/jcw

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BUSINESS

French court hands Amazon €90,000-per-day fine over contracts

French authorities on Wednesday slapped a €90,000-per-day fine on e-commerce giant Amazon until it removes abusive clauses in its contracts with businesses using its platform to sell their goods.

French court hands Amazon €90,000-per-day fine over contracts

The anti-fraud Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes (DGCCRF) service said the online sales giant’s contracts with third-party sellers who use its Amazon.fr website contain “unbalanced” clauses.

“The company Amazon Services Europe did not comply completely with an injunction it was served and it is now subject to a fine of €90,000 per day of delay” in applying the changes, the DGCCRF said in a statement.

It also urged the platform to conform with European rules on equity and transparency for firms using online platforms.

Amazon said the order would harm consumers.

“The changes imposed by the DGCCRF will stop us from effectively protecting consumers and permit bad actors to set excessive prices or spam our clients with commercial offers,” the e-commerce giant said in a statement.

“We will comply with the DGCCRF’s decision but we absolutely do not understand it and we are challenging it in court,” responded the e-commerce giant in a statement.

Amazon said the clauses that the DGCCRF has ordered removed had, for example “prevented the appearance of exorbitant prices for mask and hydroalcoholic gel during the pandemic”.

In 2019, Amazon was fined €4 million for “manifestly unbalanced” contract clauses with third-party sellers on its site in a case brought by the DGCCRF.

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