The Senate ruled. VID came back

In the public search tool of the court portal e-lieta I found 70 Senate rulings in 61 cases on Covid support, from July 2022 to 24 September 2026. The first 15 were sent to me by a lawyer who, by their own account, handled one of these cases. In that selection VID loses every time. The rest I looked for myself, to see other outcomes too.

Counted from the operative parts of the rulings. The search was by keywords, so a ruling may be missing. Lower-court cases are not in the table. Decision SKA-557/2026, in which VID withdrew its appeal, is not in the table. Of the seven judgments in the last row, in five the Senate writes that VID's appeal is unfounded and sets the judgment aside for another reason. VID got its security deposit back in two cases.

The 10 rulings in the first column cannot be compared with the second column. The Senate began issuing judgments on the big questions in mid-2025: turnover, indirect link, sector.

Of VID's 30 losses, 11 are judgments on regional court judgments from 2022–2024. VID filed those appeals when the Senate had not yet settled these questions. It is different with most of the 19 refusals in 2026: in them the Senate refers to existing case law.

On 22 October 2025, in case SKA-16/2025, the Senate decided how to calculate the fall in turnover under Regulation No 676 as worded until 7 June 2021: under the Annual Reports Act, not from the VAT return.

In March 2026 the Senate refused to open cassation proceedings on four more VID appeals on the same question. In case SKA-545/2026 VID, citing an explanation from the Ministry of Economics, in the Senate's words “continues to insist”. The explanation was submitted to the court only after the case had been heard on the merits. The Senate: “Moreover, it is also not clear what prevented the Service from obtaining such an explanation from the Ministry of Economics already while the case was being heard on the merits.”

The Senate sent 30 cases back to the regional court. In nine of them VID went to the Senate after the new judgment, and in all nine cassation was refused. In four, the first Senate judgment had been won by the company; in five, it came on VID's appeal. In one case VID withdrew its appeal. For the other 20, I cannot see in the search tool whether VID did not appeal or the regional court has not yet ruled.

In July, in case SKA-694/2026 on the declared additional activity, the Senate writes that the interpretation “is in line with existing Senate case law, which has already been explained to the Service”. In August, in case SKA-636/2026 on the indirect link: “has already answered identical arguments of the Service's cassation appeal in another case”.

On other questions the Senate calls VID's approach formal. “The court therefore rightly found the Service's approach to be overly formal”, in case SKA-375/2026, where the company was claiming EUR 88,501.17.

VID is allowed to appeal. That is what cassation is for.

From 8 June 2021 the regulation itself told VAT payers to look at the VAT return. The turnover dispute is about applications before that date. The annotation to the amendments, as quoted by the Senate, said they contained “legal clarity provisions and technical refinements”, and that is how VID read them. Four years later the Senate decided that “in substance a new regulation is being laid down”.

The regional court ruled both ways. The third row holds 23 judgments in VID's favour, 22 of them up to March 2025. In case SKA-77/2025 the company also lost, in September 2025.

In case SKA-564/2026 the Senate agrees with VID that decisions on support had to be taken in a short time, which could limit in-depth checks. And continues: “However, this does not justify the formal nature of the decisions taken.”

In case SKA-655/2026 the win is not yet final: VID can, in a new decision, again assess whether support is due.

In its 2024 report VID cites 89 % of court rulings favourable and partly favourable to it; the target is 90 %. Which cases that covers, the report does not say. Of these 70 rulings, one is from 2024.

In VID's report to the Cabinet of Ministers on support from October 2021 onwards, by 3 April 2022 refusals had been issued on 2,786 subsidy applications and on 2,931 grant applications worth EUR 19.24 million. That is only one stage. By 1 April 2022, in this stage, VID had received 586 objections and had itself granted support, in full or in part, 128 times.

How many of these applicants went to court? How many got a refusal and stopped? Has any refusal been reviewed without a court after October 2025? Who at VID decides on cassation when the Senate has already ruled in the case?

The rulings hold no answers.

I asked VID on 6 November 2026 and requested a reply by 30 November. The deadline has not yet passed, and at the time of publication there is no reply. When there is one, I will put it here.

What does VID do when the Senate says: not like that? In the rulings found, nine times it went back to the Senate after the new judgment. Once it withdrew its appeal.

About those who did not go to court, there is no answer yet.