Is the EU’s Second Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU invalid? More
Case C-425/14, Impresa Edilux – in praise of EU procurement law defining the personal situation of the tenderer
Article 45 of the EU’s ‘procurement’ Directive 2004/18/EC prevents people from competing for public works contracts if their personal situation falls within one of the grounds exhaustively set out in that Article. However, Article 45 also gives the Member States the right to create derogations. The issue in this case is whether Italy’s rules are compatible with EU law because they were designed to prevent organised crime from infiltrating public procurement contracts. More
Case C-452/14, Doc Generici – one change to 62 marketing authorisations
Before a medicine can be put on the EU market, it needs a ‘marketing authorisation’. The details on this certificate can be changed at a later date but a fee is charged. In this case, Doc Generici moved its corporate seat and its 62 marketing authorisations were varied by the relevant Italian body. The legal problem is the calculation of the bill. Should it be for one change repeated 62 times, as Doc Generici contends? Or should the fee be calculated per marketing authorisation, and thus the price of making a change to 62 marketing authorisations? More
Case C-460/14, Massar – is the insured free to choose his lawyer?
Where a consumer has bought an insurance policy to cover his legal expenses, and his employer seeks to terminate his contract of employment in such a way that the consumer believes he can bring a legal claim for unfair dismissal, then is the consumer able to choose his own lawyer and have those costs reimbursed under the insurance policy? Or is the insurer at liberty to refuse reimbursement of those costs on the basis that the insured is not free to choose his lawyer, and ‘unfair dismissal’ is not an ‘inquiry’ for the purposes of the EU’s ‘legal expenses insurance’ Directive 87/344? More
Case C-442/14, Bayer CropScience – Bee deaths? Buzz Off! The data requested is confidential
Citizens can request public entities to disclose information about ‘emissions into the environment’ under the EU’s ‘Access to Environmental Information’ Directive 2003/4. However, it is unclear what constitutes an emission into the environment. Equally unclear is what a public entity can do when a company claims that the data being requested from the entity is of a commercial and industrial nature and is thus covered by confidentiality. More