Recent EU Court Cases

Abstract

This European survey complements the journal's United States coverage of recent court decisions and significant filings affecting real estate appraisal practice. As a baseline installment, this survey covers calendar years 2025 and 2026; subsequent quarterly installments will report only changes from the position established here. Entries are organized by court or national jurisdiction. Several cross-cutting themes are visible across the European jurisdictions during this period: a major constitutional challenge to Germany's reformed property-tax valuation system (Grundsteuer Bundesmodell), now pending before the German Federal Constitutional Court following the Federal Fiscal Court's affirmation; expanding European-level scrutiny of mortgage enforcement procedures under the Court of Justice of the European Union's consumer-protection jurisprudence; continued European Court of Human Rights reasoning on the relationship between expropriation compensation and valuation methodology; and emerging regulatory frameworks that will reshape the operating environment for European appraisers, notably the EU AI Act's classification of automated valuation models (AVMs) as high-risk AI systems and the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive's implications for valuation of energy-inefficient stock.