European Court of Justice (News)

Vervloet and Others
Freedom of establishment
The guarantee granted by Belgium to the ARCO Group financial cooperatives infringes EU law

Gutiérrez Naranjo
Approximation of laws
Spanish case-law placing a temporal limitation on the effects of the invalidity of ‘floor clauses’ included in mortgage loan contracts in Spain is incompatible with EU law

AGET Iraklis
Approximation of laws
EU law does not, in principle, prevent a Member State from opposing collective redundancies in certain circumstances in the interests of the protection of workers and of employment

Commission v World Duty Free Group
State aid
The Court states that the General Court of the EU erred in law in setting aside the Commission decisions declaring a Spanish tax scheme incompatible with the internal market

Mondelez UK Holdings & Services v EUIPO - Société des produits Nestlé (Forme d’une tablette de chocolat)
Intellectual and industrial property
EUIPO must re-examine whether the three-dimensional shape corresponding to the product ‘Kit Kat 4 fingers’ may be maintained as an EU trade mark, according to the General Court

Infineon Technologies v Commission
Competition
The General Court dismisses the actions of Philips and Infineon in the smart card chip market cartel

TestBioTech and Others v Commission
Environment and consumers
The General Court confirms the legality of the Commission decision to dismiss as unfounded a request for review of a market authorisation decision on products containing genetically modified soybeans

Depesme and Kerrou
Freedom of movement for persons
A child in a reconstituted family may be regarded as the child of a step-parent for the purposes of a cross-frontier social advantage

Solemn undertaking before the Court of Justice of the European Union by the new Commissioner

Branganca Linares Verruga and Others
Freedom of movement for persons
By making the receipt of a study grant by the child of a frontier worker conditional on the frontier worker having worked in Luxembourg for a continuous period of five years at the time the application for the grant is made, Luxembourg has infringed EU law

Solemn undertaking before the Court of Justice of the European Union by two new Members of the European Court of Auditors

Rotenberg v Council
External relations
The General Court confirms the fund-freezing measures imposed on Mr Arkady Rotenberg for the period 2015-2016

Commission v France and Orange
State aid
The Court dismisses the Commission’s appeal in the case involving shareholder loans offered to France Télécom by the French authorities at a time when the telephone operator was undergoing a major crisis

Renewal of the term of office of the Registrar of the General Court, Mr Emmanuel Coulon

Commission v Stichting Greenpeace Nederland and PAN Europe
When a person requests access to environmental documents, the concept of ‘information on emissions into the environment’ covers, inter alia, information concerning the nature and effects of the release of a pesticide into air, water or soil, or onto plants

Hemming
Freedom of establishment
Under the Services Directive, applicants for a licence cannot be required to pay costs relating to the management and enforcement of the licencing regime when submitting their application

Soulier and Doke
The copyright directive precludes national legislation authorising the digital reproduction of out-of-print books in breach of the exclusive rights of authors

Salaberria Sorondo
Principles of Community law
The exclusion of candidates more than 35 years of age from a competition for the recruitment of police officers required to perform operational duties is compatible with EU law

Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken
Freedom of establishment
The lending of an electronic book (e-book) may, under certain conditions, be treated in the same way as the lending of a traditional book

Zentrale zur Bekämpfung unlauteren Wettbewerbs Frankfurt am Main
Approximation of laws
According to Advocate General Szpunar, the cost of a call to an after-sales telephone number must not exceed the cost of a standard call