(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG lost a U.K. lawsuit over a one-time tax on banker bonuses at the height of the financial crisis.

The Swiss lender sued the British government over the 50% tax, which applied to bonuses over 25,000 pounds ($31,000) in 2010. But a London judge rejected arguments that the levy was “strikingly unfair” because some banks didn’t have to pay it on bonuses distributed outside of the brief window the policy was in effect.

The tax was only designed to apply for a short period, and the bank has “not established a selective advantage,” judge Sarah Falk said in the ruling.

The suit centered on a levy paid at a time when public anger about banker pay surged amid the global financial crisis. The tax generated a total of 3.4 billion pounds, almost five times more than initial estimates.

Credit Suisse says it paid 239 million pounds for the tax and had to cut its global bonus pool by 5% to help fund the cost at the time.

A spokesman for the bank said it “proceeded with this case as we believed there was an important principle of law at stake; however, we accept the judgment of the court.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Kaye Wiggins in London at kwiggins4@bloomberg.net;Peter Chapman in Brussels at pchapman10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net

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