Rangecourt sues European Central Bank over leak of confidential supervisory data

Rangecourt SA has sued the European Central Bank before the General Court of the European Union over the alleged leaking of its confidential supervisory information to journalists and media outlets, claiming non-material damages of not less than EUR 500 000. The action was brought on 4 August 2026 and registered as Case T-499/26. The notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, C series, of 28 September 2026 under reference C/2026/4878.

The applicant is Rangecourt SA, a company established in Luxembourg, represented by the lawyer O. Behrends. The defendant is the European Central Bank (ECB), and the language of the case is English. The publication is a standard notice of an action brought, so the General Court has not yet ruled on the merits; it records only the claims and the pleas put forward by the applicant.

The dispute turns on the confidentiality that surrounds supervisory information. According to the notice, ECB officials are alleged to have breached their confidentiality obligations by unlawfully disclosing the applicant’s confidential supervisory information to journalists and media outlets. The applicant frames its damage as the loss of control over that confidential information, which it says also undermines the supervisory process and the integrity of the ECB’s decision-making.

What the applicant asks the Court to order

• Declare the ECB liable for the damage suffered as a result of the leaking of confidential information to journalists and media outlets.
• Declare that the leaking of confidential information by the ECB was unlawful.
• Order the ECB to disclose the circumstances surrounding the unlawful disclosures, including the identity of the persons responsible, the information disclosed, the recipients of that information and the circumstances in which the disclosures occurred.
• Order the ECB to pay non-material damages in an amount to be fixed by the Court ex aequo et bono, and in any event not less than EUR 500 000.
• Order the ECB to bear the applicant’s costs pursuant to Articles 134 and 135 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Court.

The two pleas in law

The first plea alleges that the ECB’s breach of its confidentiality obligations amounts to a sufficiently serious breach of a rule of law intended to confer rights on individuals. The applicant states that ECB officials breached those obligations by unlawfully leaking its confidential supervisory information to journalists and media outlets.

The second plea alleges a direct causal link between that breach and the damage sustained. That damage is described as including the loss of control of the applicant’s confidential information, and as undermining both the supervisory process and the integrity of the ECB’s decision-making processes.

Damages, interest and costs

The claim for non-material damage is set at a minimum of EUR 500 000, with the final figure left to the Court’s assessment. The applicant also seeks default interest running from the date of the judgment establishing the ECB’s liability until the date of actual payment. The rate requested is the one fixed by the European Central Bank for its main refinancing operations during the relevant period, increased by two percentage points.

The case places the confidentiality of supervisory information and the internal handling of market-sensitive data by the ECB before the General Court, in a claim that combines a demand for damages with a request to identify who disclosed the information and to whom. Its outcome will be read as a test of how far a central bank’s confidentiality duties can be enforced through an action for damages.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, C series, No C/2026/4878, 28 September 2026, section I (official reference: C/2026/4878).