European Court of Justice (News)

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

Rittinger and Others
State aid
The German broadcasting contribution is compatible with EU law

Hein
DFON
During their minimum period of annual leave guaranteed by EU law, workers are entitled to their normal remuneration, in spite of prior periods of short-time working

European Union v Gascogne Sack Deutschland and Gascogne
Law governing the institutions
The Court sets aside the damages imposed on the EU by the General Court on account of bank guarantee charges incurred by several undertakings in the context of excessively long proceedings before the General Court

Ville de Paris v Commission
Environment and consumers
The General Court upholds the actions brought by the cities of Paris, Brussels and Madrid and annuls in part the Commission’s regulation setting excessively high oxides of nitrogen emission limits for the tests for new light passenger and commercial vehicles

VG Media
Approximation of laws
Advocate General Hogan: the Court should rule that the new German rules prohibiting search engines from providing excerpts of press products without prior authorisation by the publisher must not be applied

Deutsche Telekom v Commission
Competition
The General Court partially annuls the Commission decision relating to anticompetitive practices on the Slovakian telecommunications market

Touring Tours und Travel
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
The Schengen Borders Code precludes Germany from requiring coach transport operators of cross-border services to check the passports and residence permits of passengers before entering or leaving German territory

Mubarak v Council
External relations
The General Court upholds the Council’s decisions of 2017 and 2018 to renew the restrictive measures taken against Mr Mubarak, former President of Egypt, in the light of ongoing judicial proceedings relating to the misappropriation of Egyptian State funds