European Court of Justice (News)

Unilever Italia Mkt. Operations
Competition
Abuse of a dominant position: exclusivity clauses in distribution contracts must be capable of having exclusionary effects

CIHEF and Others
Approximation of laws
The level of harmonisation achieved at EU level by the Biocidal Products Regulation does not prevent Member States from adopting restrictive rules on the promotion of sales of those products

Pesticide Action Network Europe and Others
Agriculture and fisheries
Protection phytosanitaire : les États membres ne peuvent pas déroger aux interdictions expresses de mise sur le marché et d’utilisation de semences traitées à l’aide de produits phytopharmaceutiques contenant des néonicotinoïdes

Udlændingenævnet (Examen linguistique imposé aux étrangers)
Freedom of movement for persons
Danish legislation which makes family reunification between a Turkish worker residing legally in Denmark and his or her spouse subject to the condition that that worker has successfully taken a test demonstrating a certain level of knowledge of Danish constitutes an unlawful 'new restriction'

Airbnb Ireland and Airbnb Payments UK
Short-term property rentals: EU law does not preclude the requirement to collect information or to withhold tax under a national tax regime
Short-term property rentals: EU law does not preclude the requirement to collect information or to withhold tax under a national tax regime

EUROAPTIEKA
Approximation of laws
The Latvian law banning the advertising of medicinal products on the basis of price, special sales or bundled sales of medicinal products and other products is compatible with EU law.

Generalstaatsanwaltschaft München (Demande d’extradition vers la Bosnie-Herzégovine)
Extradition of a Union citizen to a third State in order for him to serve a sentence in that State may be justified to prevent the risk of impunity

Louboutin (Usage d’un signe contrefaisant sur un marché en ligne)
Intellectual and industrial property

Market Place : Amazon fait elle-même usage du signe enregistré par Louboutin lorsque l’utilisateur de son site a l’impression que c’est elle qui commercialise, en son nom et pour son compte, des escarpins de la marque

Ministre de la Transition écologique and Premier ministre (Responsabilité de l’État pour la pollution de l’air)
Environment and consumers
Les directives européennes fixant des normes pour la qualité de l’air ambiant n’ont pas, comme telles, pour objet de conférer des droits aux particuliers dont la violation serait susceptible de leur ouvrir un droit à réparation

Grünig v Commission
External relations
Le Tribunal rejette les recours en annulation du règlement d’exécution concernant les droits antidumping sur les importations de certains PVAL originaires de Chine

E. Breuninger v Commission
State aid
The General Court dismisses as inadmissible the action brought by the retail undertaking Breuninger against the Commission’s decision approving aid granted by Germany to compensate for losses suffered as a result of lockdown during the COVID-19 crisis

E. Breuninger v Commission
State aid
The General Court dismisses the actions brought by Breuninger and Falke against the Commission’s decision approving German aid to undertakings which suffered, in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, a loss of turnover of at least 30%

In the context of its 70th Anniversary, the Court bestows new names on some of its buildings

Fiat Chrysler Finance Europe v Commission
State aid
Tax rulings: The Court of Justice holds that the General Court was wrong to confirm the reference framework used by the Commission to apply the arm’s length principle to integrated companies in Luxembourg, in failing to take into account the specific rules implementing that principle in that Member State

Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (Examen d’office de la rétention)
Justice and Home Affairs
A national court is required to ascertain of its own motion whether a detention measure taken in respect of an illegally staying foreign national or an asylum seeker is lawful

Deutsche Umwelthilfe (Réception des véhicules à moteur)
Environment and consumers
Approved environmental associations must be able to bring legal proceedings to challenge an EC type-approval of vehicles equipped with ‘defeat devices’ that may be prohibited (see Press Release 41/22)

Generalstaatsanwaltschaft München
Citizenship of the Union
The authorities of a Member State are not to extradite a third-country national to another third country where that national has been convicted by final judgment in another Member State for the same acts as those referred to in the extradition request and has been subject to the sentence imposed in that State

Minister for Justice and Equality (Levée du sursis)
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
European Arrest Warrant: Advocate General Ćapeta proposes that the term ‘trial resulting in the decision’ is to be interpreted as any step of the proceedings, which has the decisive influence on the deprivation of a person’s liberty.

Confédération paysanne and Others (Mutagenèse aléatoire in vitro)
Approximation of laws
Genetically modified plant varieties: according to the First Advocate General Szpunar, random mutagenesis applied in vitro must be excluded from the scope of EU law concerning deliberate release into the environment of GMOs

La Quadrature du Net and Others
Approximation of laws
First Advocate General Szpunar: a national authority should be able to access civil identity data linked to IP addresses where such data are the only means of investigation enabling the identification of the holders of those addresses suspected of online copyright infringement