The Constitutional Court awarded WWW Press compensation of approximately 110 euros following four years of litigation

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia has granted the constitutional complaint of the commercial company WWW PRESS d. o. o. from Zagreb and determined that its right to a trial within a reasonable time, guaranteed by Article 29, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, has been violated. The Decision and Ruling number U-IIIA-730/2026 dated September 16, 2026, were published in the Official Gazette (Narodne novine) no. 121 of October 23, 2026. The decision was unanimously made by the First Panel for Deciding on Constitutional Complaints, presided over by Judge Sanja Bezbradica Jelavić.

Dispute over 110.40 euros of municipal waste

The proceedings were initiated by a proposal for enforcement submitted on February 15, 2022, by the enforcement creditor Zagrebački holding d. o. o., Čistoća Branch, for the settlement of a monetary claim of 110.40 euros for the removal of municipal waste for the period from April 2020 to March 2021. On March 7, 2022, the public notary issued an enforcement ruling number Ovrv-272/2022, which, following the debtor’s objection, was overturned by a ruling of the Municipal Civil Court in Zagreb on July 5, 2022, and the proceedings continued as a lawsuit regarding the objection to the payment order under number Povrv-1003/2022.

The petitioner was represented in the proceedings before the Constitutional Court by Luka Matković, an attorney in Zagreb, and the company is headquartered in Zagreb, Pavla Hatza 3. The constitutional complaint was filed on February 25, 2026.

Four years and six months without a final decision

The Constitutional Court considered the period from the issuance of the enforcement ruling on March 7, 2022, to the date of its own decision on September 16, 2026, and determined that the proceedings have lasted four years, six months, and ten days, and have not yet been legally concluded. In the court of first instance, only one hearing for the main trial was held, in addition to the preparatory hearing, and the first-instance judgment was delivered on March 28, 2025, two years and eight months after the enforcement was overturned.

The Court assessed that this was not a complex case and that the petitioner did not contribute to the length of the proceedings. At the time of the decision, the case was before the County Court in Zagreb under number Gž-2857/2025, where it was submitted with an accompanying report on June 27, 2025, for a decision on the appeal filed on April 28, 2025.

Prior to the constitutional complaint, the petitioner utilized the request for the protection of the right to a trial within a reasonable time, which was rejected by the ruling of the President of the County Court in Zagreb number Su-Gzp-215/2024-7 dated February 28, 2025, and that ruling was confirmed by the Supreme Court by ruling number Gžzp-173/2025-3 dated February 12, 2026.

What the ruling dictates

The ruling contains the following obligations and rights:

• the constitutional complaint is granted;
• the County Court in Zagreb is obliged to render a decision in case Gž-2857/2025 within the shortest possible period, but no longer than three months counting from the first day after the publication of the decision in the Official Gazette (Narodne novine);
• the applicant is awarded appropriate compensation for the violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time in the amount of 150.00 euros;
• the compensation shall be paid from the state budget within three months of submitting a request to the Ministry of Justice, Administration and Digital Transformation;
• the president of the County Court in Zagreb is obliged to provide the Constitutional Court with a written notification of the dates of the rendering and dispatch of the decision within eight days of its dispatch, and no later than eight days from the expiration of the deadline referred to in point II of the ruling.

The Council, along with the president, consisted of five judges: Andrej Abramović, Dražen Bošnjaković, Biljana Kostadinov, Maša Marochini Zrinski, and Miroslav Šumanović.

Rejected costs of constitutional proceedings

By the ruling, the Constitutional Court rejected the applicant’s request for reimbursement of the costs of the constitutional court proceedings. The Court recalled the position from decision number U-III-3686/2019 of December 20, 2022, that it will not meritorially consider requests for reimbursement of costs that are not reasoned and supported by appropriate documentation, and in this case, such documentation was not submitted.

The decision is significant because it shows that the Constitutional Court establishes the violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time even in disputes with relatively small monetary amounts and imposes a deadline on the second-instance court, which serves as a guideline for parties in numerous similar enforcement and litigation cases initiated on the occasion of objections to payment orders.

Source: Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia, no. 121 of October 23, 2026, Decision and Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia number U-IIIA-730/2026 of September 16, 2026.