A newspaper advert placed by a car company stipulated that the exclusive price of a car was €22 000. Beside the number was a footnote sign. The tiny footnoted text indicated that consumers also needed to stump up an extra €800 for mandatory delivery costs. However, the footnote failed to declare the total purchase price of the car. The legal issue is whether the advertised price constitutes an offer for the purposes of the EU’s Directive 98/6/EC on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products offered to consumers? More
Case C-592/14, European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients – ingredients tested on animals
In countries like China and Japan, the ingredients that go into cosmetics must be tested on animals. However, EU law bans cosmetics whose ingredients have been tested on animals. The question is: can a company still put onto the EU market those cosmetics which contain ingredients that have been tested on animals because the reason why they were tested was to comply with the laws of third countries? More
Case C-613/14, James Elliott Construction – EU standards and contract construction
If a standard has been adopted in the EU, then is legal liability to be determined by this question: ‘Did the product comply with the standard, as assessed by the approved tests, at the time of supply?’ More
Case C-41/15, Dowling – the illegal takeover of a bank and the Irish bailout
In 2011, the Irish State took over the “Irish Life” bank to reduce the risk of contagion in Ireland’s financial sector. At first blush, the State’s decision seems to contravene the EU’s Second Company Law Directive and the ECJ’s Greek banks case law. But can the Irish bank’s expropriated shareholders still invoke the safeguards in the Directive when the State’s act of buying the bank was a part of the State fulfilling its legal obligations under the TFEU, and the terms of the Irish bailout? More
Case C-481/14, Jørn Hansson – Daisy! Daisy! Give me eight answers do!
Strains of plants can be protected by a type of EU IP law known as the Community plant right. Consequently, if a company sells a plant that is protected by a Community plant right, then it will need to pay money to the right holder. In this case, a company has not done so and it has been held liable for infringing the plant variety right on a Cape Daisy. The problem is: how should the compensation be worked out? More