Dienstag 22. Mai

Knoll's opinion: Only one small step....

Thursday, 04. February 2010 | 06:20 Uhr | R.KNOLL | KNOLL'S OPINION

Translator: C.SIEGEL

When it comes to considerable amounts of money, courts may make completely different decisions, says our author Rudolf Knoll with regard to the unpredictability of the courts

GERMANY (Mainz) – The fact that the lawsuit of a Moselle-vintager against the wine fund payments was dismissed by the administrative court in Koblenz, should not cause too many positive emotions among the German Wine Fund members in Mainz, since this was only a small step in the long process of going back to normal at the advertisement institution of the German wine. The court allowed an appeal. The DWF in Mainz is convinced that the dismissed plaintiff will go for this appeal, however, the institution still believes that this was an “important sign for further trials as well as for all those liable to tax” (according to press executive Ernst Büscher).

There is still a number of pending trials and most of them are about considerable amounts of money.

It is very likely that, like in the case with the Moselle vintager, there will be other verdicts and the trial might go to the Federal Constitutional Court. This would mean a lot of trouble for the CMA and the Holzabsatz fund. Courts can be so unpredictable at times...

However, there was good reason for a sigh of relief for the DWF-director Monika Reule and her nervous team after the reasoning of the already known verdict. However, this does not change the fact that the many many appeals against the payment of funds lead to a financial shortage in Mainz. Things have to be paid, however, the Wine Fund cannot simply spend the money as it pleases; instead it has to “bunker” it. Thus, there is almost no leeway for efficient advertisement measurements. (r.knoll)