European Court of Justice (News)

Judicial statistics 2018: the Court of Justice and the General Court establish record productivity with 1,769 cases completed

Falck Rettungsdienste and Falck
Freedom of establishment
Public procurement rules do not apply to services for the transport of patients provided, in emergency situations, by non-profit organisations or associations

Commission v Italy
Environment and consumers
Italy has failed to fulfil its obligations under the directive on the landfill of waste as regards 44 landfill sites

Entry into office of new Members at the Court of Justice and at the General Court of the European Union

Arib and Others
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
An internal border of a Member State at which border control has been reintroduced cannot be equated with an external border within the meaning of the ‘Returns Directive’

Blaise and Others
Agriculture and fisheries
Advocate General Sharpston: there is no factor affecting the validity of the Regulation concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market

Tjebbes and Others
Citizenship of the Union
EU law does not preclude the loss of the nationality of a Member State and, consequently, the loss of citizenship of the EU, where the genuine link between the person concerned and that Member State is durably interrupted

Izsák and Dabis v Commission
Law governing the institutions
The Commission erred in law by refusing to register the European citizens’ initiative aimed at improving the situation of national minority regions

Tweedale v EFSA
Law governing the institutions
EFSA’s decisions refusing access to the toxicity and carcinogenicity studies on the active substance glyphosate are annulled

Baltic Media Alliance
SERV
Advocate General Saugmandsgaard Øe: the Audiovisual Media Services Directive does not preclude the adoption by a Member State of a measure imposing an obligation to broadcast or retransmit a foreign television channel only in packages available for an additional fee, in order to restrict the dissemination by that channel to the public of that State of information inciting hatred

Amazon EU
Environment and consumers
Advocate General Pitruzzella proposes that the Court rule that an e-commerce platform such as Amazon cannot be obliged to make a telephone number available to consumers

Craeynest and Others
Environment and consumers
Advocate General Kokott proposes that the Court of Justice should rule that national courts must, on application by affected individuals, examine whether air sampling points were sited in accordance with the criteria set out in EU law

Línea Directa Aseguradora
Approximation of laws
Advocate General Bot proposes that the Court should declare that spontaneous burning of a vehicle parked in a private garage for more than 24 hours falls within the concept of ‘use of vehicles’

Associação Peço a Palavra and Others
Freedom of establishment
The conditions set by the Portuguese Government for the reprivatisation of TAP are compatible with EU law with the exception of the requirement to maintain and develop the existing national hub

Rimšēvičs v Latvia
Law governing the institutions
The Court annuls the decision suspending the Governor of the Central Bank of Latvia from office

Fashion ID
PDON
Advocate General Bobek: the operator of a website embedding a third party plugin such as the Facebook Like button, which causes the collection and transmission of the users’ personal data, is jointly responsible for that stage of the data processing

Rimšēvičs v Latvia
Law governing the institutions
Advocate General Kokott proposes that the Court should rule that, by suspending the Governor of the Bank of Latvia from office, the Republic of Latvia has failed to fulfil its obligations

Berlusconi and Fininvest
Freedom of establishment
The Court of Justice alone has jurisdiction to determine whether the legality of the ECB’s decision opposing the acquisition by Fininvest and Mr Berlusconi of a qualifying holding in Banca Mediolanum is affected by any defects vitiating the preparatory acts by the Banca d’Italia

Commission v Poland
Principles of Community law
Poland must immediately suspend the application of the provisions of national legislation relating to the lowering of the retirement age for Supreme Court judges

Hamas v Council
External relations
The General Court dismisses the action brought by Hamas against the decisions to maintain the freezing of its funds as an entity involved in acts of terrorism