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.
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.
France taxes large companies that buy back and cancel their own shares, on the amount of the capital reduction and a proportionate share of the premiums. Carrefour and Teleperformance say that is an indirect tax on the raising of capital, which Directive 2008/7 forbids outright. The Conseil d'État asks whether a tax on giving capital back can be a tax on bringing it in.
Belgium's French Community makes streaming services that target its audience invest in audiovisual production, and it decides what counts: new works, with a quota for Belgian French-language ones, and no credit for buying rights to films already made. Netflix — established in the Netherlands, already paying there — asks the Constitutional Court, and now the Court of Justice, how much of that the Audiovisual Media Services Directive allows.
Italy's communications regulator decided that Amazon's logistics, locker and transport-organising arms are postal service providers needing authorisation under the Postal Services Directive. Three Amazon companies say they never clear, sort, transport or deliver anything. The Advocate General has proposed that organising and controlling those who do is enough.
Brussels taxes parking spaces, but exempts buildings used for a public service of general interest owned by Belgium's own regions and communities. Baden-Württemberg, which owns such a building in the city, is taxed. Its appeal asks whether the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality protects the subdivisions of another Member State.
By judgment of 13 September 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:715) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 54 of Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on markets in financial instruments amending…
By judgment of 23 January 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:26) the Court held that the European Firearms Pass provisions of the Firearms Directive do not apply to the territory of Gibraltar, as the Directive's travel-facilitation rules concern the free movement of…
Can a public sector pension provider be awarded a contract without there having been an advert or a tendering procedure? Background There is a clinic in the German spa town of Bad Reichenhall. It used to be in the public sector and run by the ‘VBG’, the VBG Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft.…
By judgment of 18 May 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:391) the Court held that refusing to issue an RPVA secure-network dongle to a lawyer registered at a bar in another Member State restricts the freedom to provide services, and is justified only where denying…
By judgment of 14 November 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:860) the Grand Chamber held that practices of producer organisations and their associations escape Article 101 TFEU only where they remain strictly within the tasks the common market organisation assigns to…
By judgment of 26 October 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:814) the Court held that duplicate bridge, whose physical element is negligible, is not a "sport" for the purposes of the VAT exemption — whatever its benefits for mental health and discipline — while noting…
By Grand Chamber judgment of 16 May 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:373) the Court held that a company fined for refusing to answer a cross-border tax-information order may invoke Article 47 of the Charter: the national court must be able to review whether the…
The reference was decided in the joined judgment of 30 January 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:44), delivered under the lead case C‑360/15. The Grand Chamber held that retail trade in goods is a 'service' within Article 4(1) of Directive 2006/123, and — the point the…
On 27 September 2017 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2017:724) that where co-defendants in different Member States are sued over the same supply chain, a Community-design court can grant remedies with EU-wide effect against both.
Inside a roll of toilet paper is a cardboard core. Does this internal element form part of the toilet paper’s packaging? It is a question which has stymied the French courts. The answer depends on the word ‘packaging’ which is … Continue reading →
By order of 27 October 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:830) the Court declared the Brussels commercial court's reference manifestly inadmissible for failure to set out the factual and legal context required by Article 94 of the Rules of Procedure.
By order of 8 September 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:672) the Court declared the reference from the Regional Administrative Court for Lazio manifestly inadmissible for failure to set out the factual and legal context with the precision Article 94 of the Rules of…
On 20 December 2017 the Grand Chamber ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2017:981) that UberPop is not an information-society service but a "service in the field of transport": Uber exercises decisive influence over the conditions under which non-professional drivers supply…
By judgment of 16 November 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:878) the Court held that the French scheme licensing digital exploitation of out-of-print books precluded authors' exclusive rights: consent may sometimes be implicit, but only where every author is actually…
By judgment of 16 November 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:879) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 13(2) of Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market must be…
By judgment of 29 October 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:735) the Court held that geographical data extracted from a topographic map retain sufficient autonomous informative value to be "independent materials", so a map can constitute a database within the Database…
By judgment of 27 October 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:813) the Court held that Articles 34 and 36 TFEU preclude national rules reserving parallel imports of veterinary medicinal products to authorised wholesalers, thereby excluding farmers who import for their…
By judgment of 30 June 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:498) the Court found nothing affecting the validity of the poultrymeat labelling requirement: obliging retailers to show the total price and price per unit of weight on prepacked fresh poultry is a proportionate…
By judgment of 19 October 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:776) the Court held that Germany's system of fixed prices for prescription-only medicines, as applied to mail-order pharmacies established in other Member States, is a measure having equivalent effect contrary…
On 28 July 2016 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2016:612) that in a collective injunction action the law applicable to assessing contract terms is determined by the Rome I Regulation even though the action itself falls under Rome II.
Can the Dutch Data Protection Agency exert any control over companies based in the UK and the USA which conduct covert surveillance on Dutch territory? And in the event of an individual’s data processing law rights under Dutch law being … Continue reading → Continue reading →
By judgment of 7 July 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:527) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 3 of Directive 98/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of…
By judgment of 27 October 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:821) the Court held that it has jurisdiction to interpret harmonised technical standards adopted under the Construction Products Directive — EN 13242 forms part of EU law for preliminary-ruling purposes —…
On 4 May 2016 the Court upheld the Second Tobacco Products Directive in full (ECLI:EU:C:2016:325): the menthol ban, the labelling and standardisation rules, the leeway for further national packaging measures and the specific e-cigarette regime of Article…
By judgment of 22 October 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:721) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The fundamental rules and general principles of the FEU Treaty, in particular the principles of equal treatment and of non-discrimination and the…
By judgment of 7 April 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:216) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 4(1)(a) of Council Directive 87/344/EEC of 22 June 1987 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to legal…
On 15 September 2016 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2016:689) that a shopkeeper offering free open Wi-Fi provides a "mere conduit" service and cannot be held liable in damages for users' infringements.
By judgment of 9 November 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:839) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 1(2)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 258/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 1997 concerning novel foods and novel food…
By judgment of 17 February 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:89) the Court held that a split screen separating closing credits from the following advertising break need not additionally carry an acoustic or optical signal, provided the separation itself meets Article…
Is the Council of Europe’s Draft Convention against the Manipulation of Sports Competitions compatible with EU law? Facts On 11 July 2014, the Maltese Government issued a press release announcing that it was asking the CJEU for an Advisory Opinion on the Council of Europe’s Draft Convention against…
By judgment of 1 October 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:639) the Court gave "establishment" a broad, flexible reading: even minimal real and effective activity through stable arrangements — a Hungarian-language property site, a local representative, a Hungarian bank…
On 6 October 2015 the Grand Chamber declared the Safe Harbour adequacy decision invalid (ECLI:EU:C:2015:650): a regime permitting generalised access by US authorities to transferred data compromised the essence of Article 7 of the Charter, and the absence…
On 6 October 2015 the Grand Chamber declared the Safe Harbour adequacy decision invalid (ECLI:EU:C:2015:650): a regime permitting generalised access by US authorities to transferred data compromised the essence of Article 7 of the Charter, and the absence…
By judgment of 1 October 2015 in the joined Trijber and Harmsen cases (ECLI:EU:C:2015:641) the Court held that Amsterdam canal-boat tours fall within the Services Directive, and that authorisations issued in limited numbers because of scarce resources may…
Amsterdam has a red light district. Aspects of the neighbourhood are regulated by the local authority. So can the local authority refuse to licence a Dutch company that rents apartments to Bulgarian and Hungarian sex workers, on the basis that the people running the company do not speak the…
By judgment of 17 September 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:610) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1. EU law must be interpreted as allowing a relevant national authority to impose a tariff obligation, such as that at issue in the main…
By judgment of 11 June 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:378) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Directive 2002/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic…
If the social partners agree to award an undertaking the exclusive right to administer an insurance scheme that benefits employees in a particular sector of the French economy, then does Article 56 TFEU’s transparency obligation apply before the relevant French Minister can declare the collective…
By judgment of 15 January 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:10) the Court held that the Database Directive does not apply to a database protected neither by copyright nor by the sui generis right, so its user-freedom guarantees (Articles 6, 8 and 15) do not override…
On 14 January 2015 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2015:9) that London's policy of admitting black cabs but not private-hire vehicles to bus lanes does not appear to involve a commitment of state resources or confer a selective advantage of the kind caught by…
By judgment of 11 December 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2435) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1) Articles 41(1), 43 and 45 of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of…
Electronic auctions can be used to award contracts in the water, energy, transport and postal sectors of the economy. These auctions are governed by an EU Directive that stipulates contracting entities must simultaneously communicate information to all tenderers so that the tenderers can ascertain…
By judgment of 11 September 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2209) the Court held that the E-Commerce Directive covers an online newspaper remunerated by advertising, but that a publisher which knows of and controls the information it posts is not a "mere conduit",…
On 27 February 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:110) that a spa establishment transmitting broadcasts to televisions in guest rooms performs a communication to the public, and that no health-establishment exception can excuse it.
By judgment of 19 June 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2004) the Court held that the in-house (Teckal) exception fails where the awardee, though performing public-interest tasks, counts private charitable interests among its members: the contracting authority then…
By judgment of 8 May 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:303) the Court refused to extend the in-house exception to "horizontal" awards: a contract between Hamburg University and HIS — both controlled to differing degrees by the city — required tendering, because the…
Does the EU’s Authorisation Directive 2002/20 mean that Vodafone Omnitel, Sky and other companies can avoid paying millions of euro to the Italian regulatory body, AgCom? Facts The Italian telecoms and broadcasting sector has a regulatory body known as AgCom (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle…
By judgment of 18 July 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:496) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 4(1) of Directive 2010/13/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 March 2010 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down…
On 7 November 2013 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2013:717) that Article 4(1) of Directive 87/344 does not permit a legal-expenses insurer to reserve for itself the decision whether to instruct an external lawyer: where judicial or administrative proceedings…
By judgment of 6 February 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:54) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Articles 52 and 56 TFEU must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a Member State, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which imposes a…
By judgment of 2 July 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:436) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The questions referred by the Tribunale amministrativo regionale per la Sicilia (Italy), by decision of 9 October 2012, and maintained by that court, are…
By judgment of 7 November 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:715) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 13(1) of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to…
By judgment of 13 February 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:81) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The Court of Justice of the European Union does not have jurisdiction to answer the requests from the Tribunale amministrativo regionale per il Lazio…
By judgment of 30 April 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:281) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 56 TFEU must be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, where that legislation does not…
By judgment of 22 October 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:675) the Court annulled the Council's decision on signing the European Convention on the legal protection of conditional-access services: the Convention falls principally within the common commercial policy,…
By judgment of 13 February 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:74) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The Court of Justice of the European Union does not have jurisdiction to answer the requests from the Tribunale amministrativo regionale per il Lazio…
By judgment of 5 December 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:791) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 49 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which does not allow a…