Last week (27 March 2025) the Court of Justice – asked by the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof) to interpret Art 31(1) of Regulation (EU) 2015/848 – delivered its judgment on the case No C-168/24, Matthäus Metzler v Auto1 European Cars BV.
In essence, the referring Court asked whether Art 31(1) of the Insolvency Regulation – according to which “where an obligation has been honoured in a Member State for the benefit of a debtor who is subject to insolvency proceedings opened in another Member State, when it should have been honoured for the benefit of the insolvency practitioner in those proceedings, the person honouring the obligation shall be deemed to have discharged it if he was unaware of the opening of the proceedings” – applies to obligations arising from legal transactions concluded by a debtor after insolvency proceedings have been opened and administration powers transferred to the insolvency practitioner
In the decision, the Court of Justice stated that the third subparagraph of Art 31(1) of Regulation No 2015/848 must be interpreted as meaning that “obligations honoured for the benefit of a debtor who is subject to insolvency proceedings, when they should have been honoured for the benefit of the insolvency practitioner in those proceedings, also include the honouring of an obligation arising from a legal act concluded by the debtor after the opening of those insolvency proceedings and the transfer of the administration of the assets to the insolvency practitioner, provided that such a legal act is enforceable, in accordance with the law of the State of the opening of those proceedings, against the creditors who are parties to such proceedings”.
On cross-border insolvency, the readers of RDIPP may refer to:
Stefania Bariatti, 2022, No 1, 5 ff.;
Antonio Leandro, 2014, No 2, 317 ff.;
Massimo V. Benedettelli, 2004, No 2, 499 ff.;
Patrizia De Cesari, 2003, No 1, 55 ff.;
Luigi Daniele, 2002, No 1, 33 ff.;
Claudio Dordi, 1997, No 2, 333 ff.
Moreover, see, in our Book Series:
Angela Lupone, Book No 44.