In the Vivendi/Lagardère merger probe the Commission ordered Vivendi, which controls a large press group, to hand over documents found by searching its executives' files. Vivendi lost before the General Court in June. Its appeal goes further than Lagardère's: it asks the Court to declare Article 11(3) of the Merger Regulation inapplicable, because it offers no prior judicial check before journalists' sources reach the Commission.
An Albanian company holding a large Albanian judgment against Enel has spent years trying to enforce it in courts outside Albania. The Rome Court of Appeal asks whether a Member State court's decision declaring a third-State judgment enforceable is itself a 'judgment' that the Brussels I Regulation lets circulate across the Union.
Italy's competition authority found that Autostrade per l'Italia engaged in an unfair commercial practice by charging full tolls while the service fell short because of its own lack of diligence, where drivers had no real alternative. The Consiglio di Stato asks whether the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive stretches that far — or whether a price that should have been cut is a matter for contract law.
A lender failed to assess a borrower's creditworthiness and then sold the loan to Hoist Italia, a buyer of consumer debt. Italian law lets the borrower claim only against the original lender, for pre-contractual liability and damages. A court in Busto Arsizio asks whether that sanction is effective enough under the Consumer Credit Directive when the debt is being collected by someone else.
The EU's €150 billion SAFE defence-loan instrument excludes contractors controlled by third countries — unless they have passed foreign-investment screening. In an Italian Ministry of Defence tender, a bidder relied on a firm holding a screening authorisation from another Member State. The first two references on SAFE ask whether the exclusion reaches companies a bidder merely relies on, and whether another Member State's clearance binds the buyer.
In June the General Court annulled Meta's gatekeeper designation for Marketplace but upheld it for Messenger. Meta now appeals the half it lost, on a single ground: that Messenger is the chat function of Facebook, not a separate number-independent communications service. The answer decides how the Digital Markets Act carves a company's products into services.
Greek law obliges every employer to pay Christmas, Easter and holiday bonuses worth two months' salary — except employers in the public sector, which stopped paying them in the crisis years. Hospital staff in Kilkis, most of whom now earn less per year than the statutory minimum wage, ask whether the Adequate Minimum Wages Directive allows that.
Latvia's air navigation provider, a state-owned company, requires its air traffic controllers to hold security clearance for classified information — which in practice excludes nationals of other Member States. A licensed EU controller challenged the exclusion. Latvia's Supreme Court asks whether the post falls within the public service exception, and whether airspace security in a 'complex geopolitical context' can justify it.
Italian law refuses to execute a European arrest warrant if the requested person's mental state makes them permanently unable to take part in proceedings with full awareness. That ground appears nowhere in the Framework Decision. The Milan Court of Appeal asks whether recital 12 and Article 1(3) allow it anyway.
Fourteen Skåne municipalities award contracts directly to a jointly owned company, relying on the in-house exception. That exception requires more than 80% of the company's activities to serve the owners. Sweden's competition authority says the company's sales to third parties on a competitive market should not count towards the 80%. The Supreme Administrative Court asks the Court.