The Bottom Line
- Escalating Penalties: Government agencies that ignore court-ordered deadlines for decisions can face significantly increased financial penalties in subsequent legal actions.
- Streamlined Second Appeals: If a government body misses a court-imposed deadline, you can file a second appeal without issuing a new formal notice of default, accelerating the process to force a decision.
- A Tool Against Bureaucracy: This ruling reinforces that the courts provide a potent remedy against administrative delays, offering a clear path for businesses to compel timely decisions on critical permits, licenses, or visas.
The Details
This case began when an individual applied for a family reunification visa. After the responsible government body, the Minister of Asylum and Migration, failed to issue a decision within the statutory timeframe, the applicant successfully sued. In September 2024, the court ordered the Minister to make a decision within eight weeks and imposed a daily penalty of €100 (up to a maximum of €7,500) for non-compliance. This initial ruling provided a standard, clear-cut remedy for administrative inaction.
However, the Minister also failed to meet this court-ordered deadline. With the initial penalty having maxed out and still no decision in sight, the applicant filed a second lawsuit in March 2025. Because the government had already been instructed by the court to act, this second appeal was immediately considered “manifestly well-founded.” This highlights a crucial procedural point: once a court sets a deadline, further failure by the state to comply can lead to swifter judicial intervention.
In its final judgment, the District Court of The Hague not only sided with the applicant again but significantly raised the stakes. It gave the Minister a much shorter deadline of just two weeks to issue a final decision. Crucially, the court imposed a new, doubled daily penalty of €200, with a much higher cap of €15,000. The judges explicitly noted that the first penalty had proven to be an “insufficient incentive.” This decision sends a strong signal to all public bodies that courts will not tolerate repeated disregard for their orders and are prepared to escalate financial pressure to ensure compliance.
Source
Source: District Court of The Hague
