The Supreme Court exempts Triodos from liability in a case involving its preferred shares.

BarcelonaThe Supreme Court has exonerated Triodos Bank from liability in a case involving the marketing of share deposit certificates (CDAs), popularly known as thepreferredof the ethical Dutch bank, in what is the first ruling by the high court in an individual case related to that investment product. The Supreme Court now has other cases before it that may be affected by this ruling, while for Triodos this ruling sets an "important" precedent for other pending litigation in Spain.

The text, to which ARA has had access, dismisses the appeal filed by the client against a ruling by the Teruel Provincial Court that sided with the bank and overturned another ruling in favor of the client issued by the Alcañiz Court of First Instance. This is the case that has gone the furthest, since until now the battle has been fought on provincial and first-instance grounds, with a very balanced proportion of rulings, generally first in favor of the clients and then in favor of the bank. The other two rulings the Supreme Court has yet to resolve come from two appeals by the Ronda Collective against two rulings by the Girona Provincial Court.

In the case in question, it concerns a client who made several purchases of this product before Triodos made changes to its marketing: it suspended trading in 2020 and 2021 because it noticed that those interested in purchasing the product were disappearing and sales requests were piling up. With that decision, clients' savings were stranded. In fact, all of Triodos's cases are related to its lack of transparency in marketing these products and also to clients' difficulties in conducting transactions due to the market closure. In 2021, the bank announced the demise of the internal, regulated market for CDAs, which would be listed on a multilateral trading facility, which was launched in 2023 and is currently operational. In 2024, Triodos announced its intention to list its CDAs on Euronext Amsterdam.

Given all of this, the client requested annulment due to a lack of consent, considering that the nature of the product had been substantially modified. However, the Supreme Court has now rejected the request, considering, among other reasons, that it cannot be proven that the subsequent change in the quotation system caused the client's losses; and also because the bank explicitly warned of the risk of suspending trading in the CDAs for a prolonged period, as noted by an Amsterdam court in March 2023. "It must be taken into account that Triodos's activity is governed by Dutch law and that the Dutch courts have considered the decisions taken regarding the change in the quotation system to be in accordance with the law," the ruling adds.