The Constitutional Court will consider the case regarding the deprivation of a reduced VAT rate for printed products in Latvia in the Russian language, writes Grani.lv.
The complaint was filed by two legal entities: the bookstore Intelektuāla grāmata and the Kraslava enterprise LER8, which is involved in the publication of the newspaper "Ezerzeme".
This is already the second case in which an attempt is made to challenge the new norm through the Constitutional Court, according to which all literature published in the languages of countries not belonging to the EU and EAEU is subject to a 21% tax. Aimed against the Russian language, it is intended to make all printed products in Russian unprofitable for publishers and non-competitive.
The first applicant was lawyer Alexey Dimitrov, who submitted his complaint to the Constitutional Court at the end of April. Dimitrov considers himself to have suffered damage from the new consumer rate.
And now — a new case on the same topic, but this time the applicants are the bookstore and the publisher. Thus, the Constitutional Court has received complaints from representatives of all sectors that have incurred direct losses from the innovation.
How do the bookstore and publisher justify the infringement of their rights? Very simply. They expected the reduced tax rate to apply to all publications distributed by them, regardless of the language. But their calculations did not come true. Thus, in their opinion, the principle of protection of legitimate expectations enshrined in Article 1 of the Constitution has been violated, as well as the property rights guaranteed by the first three sentences of Article 105 of the Constitution.
But that is not all. According to the applicants, the principle of prohibition of discrimination enshrined in Article 91 of the Constitution has been violated. In this case, there is discrimination based on language, since distributors of publications in Latvian and other languages specified in the law find themselves in a more favorable position: they have been left with a reduced rate.
The applicants argue that the changes in the law have directly impacted their business: publications in Russian have become more expensive, readers have started buying books less frequently and refusing subscriptions, which has reduced turnover and the ability to continue previous activities.
In addition, the contested norms also restrict commercial freedom of speech — the right to disseminate information for part of society consuming content in Russian. Consequently, fundamental rights enshrined in Article 100 of the Constitution are also affected.
Now the Constitutional Court has obliged the Saeima to submit written explanations on the case by July 25. The case is planned to be prepared for consideration by October 25.
As for Dimitrov's complaint, there is currently no court response regarding whether a case will be initiated. Although the allotted month is already coming to an end. However, in special cases, the court may take two months to respond.
