The trade fair grounds in Naxxar were not licensed to hold commercial exhibitions, an Appeals Court has ruled, four years after the organisers started a legal battle to retain the venue that was used for 50 years.
The court found that Trade Fairs Exhibitors Association (TFEA) Ltd did not have a permit to hold the trade fair in 2010, when it filed a court case against the Commerce Division that refused to grant a licence to hold the event.
The annual trade fair was moved to Ta’ Qali in 2007 after being held in Naxxar for 50 years.
Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo had given the Director General at the Commerce Division four days in which to consider the application for the licence to hold the fair.
However, the director refused to issue the licence and the company sought recourse before the Licensing Appeals Board.
Before 2006 the corporation was granted a permit to hold the fair because that was the only thing needed at the time
The board had also found in favour of the company, deciding that the Naxxar trade fair grounds were licensed premises for such events.
It ruled that the application for a licence had been refused without valid reason at law.
But the matter was taken a step further, with yet another appeal filed by the Commerce Division which, this time, was successful.
The director had argued that he had discretionary powers to decide upon the issue of a licence after seeing what impact a licence could have on the environment and on the implementation of public policy.
He had argued that the Central Malta Local Plan of 2006 had stipulated that, in the event that the trade fair activity ceased to operate in Naxxar, the planning authority would not allow the continued use of the site for a trade fair.
Mr Justice Tonio Mallia, Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi and Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon disagreed with the previous court interpretation on the licence covering “an office for the managing of the Malta International Fair”.
They said this did not encompass all the trade fair grounds. Moreover, they said, the licence for the office was issued in 1975 on behalf of the Malta Trade Fairs Corporation and that the name of TFEA Ltd did not appear anywhere.
The court noted that, before 2006, when the regulations changed, the corporation was granted a permit to hold the fair because that was the only thing needed at the time.
It therefore overturned the original judgment and rule that TFEA Ltd did not have a permit to hold fairs in Naxxar, vindicating the Commerce Division’s decision to refuse granting it a licence.