Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Tourism, Transport

The Supreme Court of Finland on Dec. 8 made a judgment on an appeal by AS Tallink Grupp and a company of the Tallink group, AS Hansatee Cargo, concerning a decision made by the Helsinki Court of Appeal on Aug. 8, 2016 in a fairway dues dispute with the Finnish state, Tallink told the stock exchange.

The Supreme Court judged not to grant the Tallink appeal against the decision of the second tier court, which had found that the claims of Tallink and other shippers to be refunded, with interest, the fairway dues charged excessively in the years 2001-2004 had lapsed.

Previously, on Feb. 27, 2015, the Helsinki District Court announced its judgment in the case between a number of Finnish and foreign ship operators and the Finnish state regarding fairway charges levied during the years 2001-2004. According to the judgment, the Finnish state was required to pay 12.4 million euros to Viking Line, 17 million euros to Finnlines and 34.1 million euros to companies of Tallink. Of the latter, AS Tallink Grupp would have received 13.2 million euros, AS Hansatee Cargo 400,000 euros and Tallink Silja Oy 20.5 million euros.

The shippers went to court after it was determined that the Finnish law on fairway dues valid until Jan. 1, 2006 ran counter to EU law and violated the freedom of provision of cross-border services through allowing Finland to charge vessels operating international routes a higher fairway fee than the vessels operating domestic routes.