Germany’s Top Court Rejects Another Case Over ECB’s 2015 QE

(Bloomberg) -- Just weeks after rattling global financial markets, Germany’s top court rejected a second case challenging a key European Central Bank bond buying program.

The Federal Constitutional Court in a May 26 ruling, disclosed Thursday, dismissed the case related to the ECB’s 2015 Expanded Asset Purchase Program. It was only May 5 when the court sent tremors through the markets when it questioned Germany’s participation in the plan, saying that it ran afoul of European Union treaties.

In the latest ruling, however, the court said the plaintiffs made abstract arguments about the EU, rather than showing how the German government failed. The case also targeted the ECB’s actions directly, which aren’t subject to German legal review.

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The latest ruling, like the May 5 judgment, didn’t cover the new 750 billion-euro ($843 billion) Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program, a response to the coronavirus outbreak. No suit has yet been filed against the PEPP, a court spokesman said on Thursday.

The ruling is: BVErfG 2 BvR 43/16.

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