European Court of Justice (News)

Lego v EUIPO - Delta Sport Handelskontor (Élément de construction d'une boîte de jeu de construction)
Intellectual and industrial property
EUIPO erroneously declared invalid a design of a brick of a LEGO toy building set

NAMA and Others
Approximation of laws
EU law precludes a national practice by which a candidate excluded from a public procurement procedure may rely, in that candidate’s appeal against the decision to admit the bid of another tenderer, only on the infringement of the principle of equality in the assessment of bids

Prefettura Ufficio territoriale del governo di Firenze
SOPO
Lorry, motor coach and bus drivers who, during an inspection, do not produce the record sheets for the tachograph relating to the current day and the previous 28 days are subject to a single penalty, irrespective of the number of missing record sheets

MCP
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
The jurisdiction of the court of a Member State that is seised of an action relating to parental responsibility cannot be based on Article 10 of the Brussels II bis Regulation in a case of abduction of a child to a third State

Airhelp
Transport
A strike organised by a trade union of the staff of an air carrier that is intended in particular to secure pay increases does not fall within the concept of an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ capable of releasing the airline from its obligation to pay compensation for cancellation or long delay in respect of the flights concerned

Germany v Poland
Energy
According to Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona, the principle of energy solidarity can be used to review the lawfulness of acts of the EU institutions in energy-related matters

An tAire Talmhaíochta Bia agus Mara, Éire agus an tArd-Aighne
Approximation of laws
A Member State court is required to exercise the power conferred on it by national law to make a declaration that that Member State has failed correctly to transpose a directive and is required to take remedial steps in that regard

Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Freedom of movement for persons
Where a worker has concluded more than one employment contract with the same employer, the minimum daily rest period applies to the contracts taken as a whole and not to each of the contracts taken separately

Association One Voice and Ligue pour la protection des oiseaux
Environment and consumers
A Member State may not authorise a method of capture of birds leading to by-catch where that by-catch is likely to cause harm other than negligible harm to the species concerned

Airhelp
Transport
According to Advocate General Pikamäe, a strike organised by pilots’ trade unions constitutes, in principle, an extraordinary circumstance that may release the air carrier from its obligation to pay compensation for the cancellation or long delay of the flights concerned

Commission v Poland
State aid
The Polish tax on the retail sector and the Hungarian tax on advertisements do not infringe EU law on State aid

Istanbul Convention

Advocate General Hogan proposes that the Court hold that although the EU has signed the Istanbul Convention, the Council is entitled to wait, without however being forced to do so, for the common agreement of all Member States to be bound by that convention before deciding whether and to what extent the EU will accede to it.

VG Bild-Kunst
Freedom of establishment
Where the copyright holder has adopted or imposed measures to restrict framing, the embedding of a work in a website page of a third party, by means of that technique, constitutes making available that work to a new public

Radiotelevizija Slovenija (Période d’astreinte dans un lieu reculé)
SOPO
A period of stand-by time according to a stand-by system is not, in its entirety, working time unless the constraints imposed on the worker very significantly affect his or her ability to manage, during that period, his or her free time

Despite the unprecedented constraints linked to the pandemic situation, the Court of Justice of the European Union maintained a high level of activity in 2020

Euro Box Promotion and Others
Law governing the institutions
According to Advocate General Bobek, decisions of a constitutional court declaring unlawful the composition of panels of a supreme court on the ground that the right to an independent and impartial tribunal has been infringed and declaring unconstitutional the technical surveillance measures in criminal proceedings by domestic intelligence service are compatible with EU law

Commission v Fútbol Club Barcelona
State aid
The Court of Justice sets aside the judgment of the General Court by which the Commission’s decision classifying as State aid the tax scheme of four Spanish professional football clubs had been annulled

Commission v Hungary
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
According to Advocate General Rantos, by imposing criminal penalties on organising activities intended to enable persons to initiate the international protection procedure who do not fulfil the national criteria for the grant of that protection, Hungary has failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law

ClientEarth v Commission
Research, information, education, statistics
In the opinion of Advocate General Juliane Kokott, the Commission’s decision refusing to review the authorisation of the plasticiser DEHP (bis(2ethylhexyl) phthalate) should be annulled

WABE
SOPO
According to Advocate General Rantos, an employer can authorise, as part of a policy of neutrality, the wearing by its employees of small-scale religious signs