The lawyers the UK Treasury are set challenge the proposed EU bankers’ bonus cap in the European Court of Justice Luxembourg arguing that rules are an unjustified intrusion.

The UK launched a legal challenge after it was outvoted 26 on bonus cap in 2013.

The hearing will be the final stage in the lengthy legal process, which the UK opened in September. The court is not expected to make a decision until the end of the year at the earliest.

The EU passed new rules in 2013 that block banks from paying bonuses that are higher than a bankers’ base salary. However, if shareholders approve, this may be increased to double their salary in some cases.

The UK will tell the court that the cap breaks EU rules which say regulators cannot set pay for any workers.

It will also argue that the rules: damagingly impact contracts made before the regulations were introduced; break international law by hitting workers outside the EU, but working for European firms; breach data protection rules by sharing private pay information; and wrongly give new powers to the European Banking Authority.

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As a way of side-stepping the EU rules, banks including Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group have already paid their chief executives more in shares, on top of their salaries and bonuses.