Top Czech Utility Sues Central Bank Over Fine, Aktualne Reports

(Bloomberg) -- The Czech Republic’s dominant power producer CEZ AS has sued the country’s central bank over a regulatory fine, a rare legal dispute between the government-controlled utility and the institution that supervises financial markets, Aktualne.cz reported.

The Czech National Bank imposed a 1 million koruna ($42,000) fine for what it said was the company’s breach of regulatory rules in 2022, the news website said, citing a Prague court spokeswoman. The bank said that CEZ delayed an announcement about a finance ministry proposal to increase the dividend, which damaged the market’s transparency. 

CEZ has paid the fine — a tiny fraction of its adjusted net income of 35 billion koruna for last year — but it filed the lawsuit asking the court to nullify the penalty and demanding that the central bank issue an authoritative interpretation of the rules. 

The largest traded power utility in eastern Europe has argued that the announcement about the ministry’s dividend proposal needed to be accompanied by a position of the board, which caused the six-day delay, according to Aktualne.cz. 

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