Revoking tobacconist license broke ownership rules

Hungary violated rules protecting private ownership when it stripped a tobacconist of his license in 2013, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

According to an All Hungary Media Group story; the court’s ruling does not require that the offending legislation is amended, but it will require the Hungarian state to pay the equivalent of €15,000 in compensation and €6,000 in legal fees once the ruling becomes final.

The ruling will become final if neither party appeals within three months or if any appeal that is made is lost.

Mihaly Varga, the economy minister, told a press conference the Hungarian government acknowledged the Strasbourg court’s ruling, as it had done in connection with past rulings, and would pay the compensation and the legal fees set by the court.

The case was filed by Laszlo Vekony of Sopron in western Hungary, who lost his license to sell tobacco products after the government legislated in September 2012 to make the retail tobacco trade a state monopoly from July 2013.

The court ruling was based on a provision of the European Convention on Human Rights protecting private ownership, specifically ‘peaceful enjoyment of … possessions’.

Socialist board member Karoly Beke insisted that the ruling was “written proof” that Hungary’s system was corrupt. The government’s reaction to the ruling would be a “test of democracy”, Beke said.

Beke encouraged all others with a similar complaint to file suits “out of a shared, democratic interest to demonstrate the borderlines of the rule of law to a usurious, corrupt government”.

The report and comments are at: http://www.politics.hu/20150113/strasbourg-court-rules-against-hungary-over-tobacconists-complaint/