The reclaiming of Corona emergency aid by the state of NRW was unlawful. This was decided by the Higher Administrative Court of NRW in rulings dated March 17, 2023 (Case No.: 4 A 1986/22 et al.).
To mitigate the economic impact of the Corona pandemic, the state of NRW launched an emergency aid program in the spring of 2020. In the meantime, the aid is now being partially reclaimed. The Administrative Court of Düsseldorf had already ruled that the reclaims were not lawful. This has now been confirmed by the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia. Therefore, the corresponding reclaim notices must be revoked, explains the commercial law firm MTR Legal Rechtsanwälte, which also advises on legal issues related to Corona. However, the OVG limited that the state still has the opportunity to issue new final notices and reclaim unused Corona aid.
To ensure that the Corona aid could be disbursed quickly in the spring of 2020, extensive checks on applications were initially omitted. Later, recipients were to declare income and expenses during the approval period in the so-called feedback process, and the authorities calculated the liquidity shortfall based on this information. Payments exceeding this shortfall were reclaimed.
The same was true for the three plaintiffs. They each received 9,000 euros in Corona emergency aid and were each supposed to repay about 7,000 euros. They successfully resisted against this. The state did not adhere to the binding requirements from the grant notices, which stipulated that the Corona aid was solely intended to alleviate financial hardship due to the pandemic and particularly to bridge financing gaps. Therefore, the reclaims are unlawful, according to the OVG.
The feedback procedure had no basis in the grant notices. The information required therein was unsuitable for determining an allowable funding amount, according to the OVG. Recipients could also have trusted that they would not have to repay funds that they justifiably received ‘to alleviate financial hardships of the affected company or self-employed person in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic’ or ‘to bridge liquidity shortfalls.’ However, if the recipients did not need the Corona aid or only partially needed it for these purposes during the approval period, the state could issue new final notices and reclaim overpaid funds, according to the OVG.
MTR Legal Rechtsanwälte advises on legal issues related to Corona.
