Request for an Advisory Opinion from the EFTA Court by the Fürstliches Obergericht dated 25 October 2022 in the case of Alexander Amann

(Case E-14/22)

(2023/C 158/03)

A request has been made to the EFTA Court, dated 25 October 2022, from the Fürstliches Obergericht (Princely Court of Appeal), which was received at the Court Registry on 16 November 2022, for an Advisory Opinion in the case of Alexander Amann on the following questions:

Does Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market preclude a provision such as Paragraph 35(1)(c) of the Professional Guidelines of the Liechtenstein Chamber of Lawyers which prohibits lawyers from offering professional services to specific categories of potential clients and which is to be construed, in accordance with the interpretation adopted by the Liechtenstein Staatsgerichtshof (Constitutional Court), as ‘prohibiting proactive advertising by lawyers where they offer their services in certain situations to selected (groups of) people who have not themselves expressed an interest in those services’?

Is Article 24(1) of Directive 2006/123/EC to be interpreted as meaning that a national provision may not, in general, prohibit lawyers from, on their own initiative, contacting by letter potential clients who were not previously their customers, after ascertaining their personal addresses, and from offering them their services, in particular by bringing an action for damages in a case of damage affecting them as best only as investors?