Monitoring References to the Court of Justice of the European Union
Field of law
93 case reports
The Return Directive defines return to a third country as one the person 'voluntarily decides to return' to. If that word governs the choice of destination, a State cannot send anyone to a safe third country they did not pick. The Dutch Council of State asks.
One authority withdraws international protection and finds no risk of ill-treatment. A second authority then orders removal. Must it examine that risk again from the beginning — and what happens to evidence the person could have produced earlier but did not? The Bremen administrative court asks.
By judgment of 14 March 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:181) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 7 December 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:948) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 29 May 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:335) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Examination of the question has not disclosed any issues capable of affecting the validity of Article 4(4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 of 24…
By judgment of 8 June 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:430) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The first subparagraph of Article 3(2) of Commission Directive 2008/69/EC of 1 July 2008 amending Council Directive 91/414/EEC to include clofentezine,…
By judgment of 25 January 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:37) the Court held that Mr Schrems had not lost his consumer status for his own Facebook account through his books, lectures and campaigning, so he could sue Facebook in Vienna.
By judgment of 8 March 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:172) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 15 March 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:185) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
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 20 December 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:994) the Court held that a candidate's written answers in a professional examination — and the examiner's comments on them — are the candidate's personal data, opening access and rectification rights adapted…
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…
By Grand Chamber judgment of 17 October 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:766) the Court held that a legal person claiming injury from online publications may sue for its entire damage where it has its centre of interests, and that claims for rectification and removal…
By judgment of 2 October 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:788) the Court held that police access limited to the identity data of SIM-card holders is not a serious interference with fundamental rights and may therefore be justified for investigating offences that are…
By judgment of 19 July 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:566) the Court held that Italy's on-call contracts available to workers under 25 and terminating automatically at that age are not precluded by the prohibition of age discrimination: the flexibility served a…
By judgment of 26 July 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:597) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 27 February 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:118) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Since neither the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Kingdom of Morocco nor the Protocol between the European…
By judgment of 27 September 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:725) the Court held that requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies before a data-protection claim reaches a court is compatible with Article 47 of the Charter if it causes no substantial delay or…
On 27 February 2018 the Grand Chamber ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2018:117) that Article 19(1) TEU obliges Member States to ensure that courts which may apply EU law meet the requirements of effective judicial protection, including independence — though Portugal's…
By judgment of 21 December 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:974) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 4 May 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:336) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 7(f) 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 the…
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 judgment of 9 June 2016 in the joined Pesce cases (ECLI:EU:C:2016:428) the Court upheld the Commission's Xylella fastidiosa decision: the obligation to remove host plants, including asymptomatic ones, within 100 metres of infected plants is a…
On 12 June 2018 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2018:423) that a mark consisting of a colour applied to the sole of a shoe is not a sign consisting "exclusively of the shape" within Article 3(1)(e)(iii) of the Trade Marks Directive — the red sole is principally…
By judgment of 20 October 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:790) the Court held that the terms of protection in the Term Directive do not apply to copyright that had been extinguished before 1 July 1995, and that EU law does not preclude national legislation under…
By judgment of 28 July 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:603) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Can the Austrian branch of the World Wildlife Fund invoke the Aarhus Convention and the EU’s water framework Directive to make legal objections to a local authority which is deciding whether to grant a water licence to a company wanting to build a hydroelectric power station? And what is to be done…
By judgment of 4 April 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:255) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 6(1)(d) of Council Directive 2004/114/EC of 13 December 2004 on the conditions of admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of…
By judgment of 26 July 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:593) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Joined with Tele2 Sverige and decided by Grand Chamber judgment of 21 December 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:970): yes, Digital Rights Ireland's standards bind national regimes — Article 15(1) of the e-Privacy Directive, read with the Charter, precludes general and…
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 judgment of 15 March 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:214) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
In October 2014, the EU and Singapore concluded a free trade agreement. However, there is uncertainty surrounding how to classify the legal agreement. That is to say, is it an agreement which the EU has exclusive competence to sign and … Continue reading → Continue reading →
On 9 March 2017 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2017:197) that there is no general right to have personal data erased from the companies register: the publicity of such registers pursues legal certainty for third parties and data may be kept indefinitely.
The European Commission has asked the CJEU for a legal opinion on whether the EU has exclusive competence to conclude the Marrakesh Treaty, which aims to help people with reading difficulties access published works. Background On 21 October 2014, the EU Commission published its ‘Proposal for a…
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 14 March 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:204) the Court held that an employer's willingness to accommodate a customer's wish no longer to have services provided by a worker wearing an Islamic headscarf is not a "genuine and determining occupational…
On 21 December 2016 the Grand Chamber ruled in the joined Tele2/Watson cases (ECLI:EU:C:2016:970) that Article 15(1) of the e-Privacy Directive, read with the Charter, precludes national legislation imposing general and indiscriminate retention of traffic…
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 →
On 8 September 2016 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2016:644) that posting a hyperlink to works published online without the rightholder's consent is a communication to the public where the poster knew or ought to have known of the illegality.
Canada and the EU have negotiated a new Passenger Name Record Agreement. A plank of the Agreement involves the transfer and processing of data. The European Parliament is asking the CJEU for a legal opinion on the compatibility of that … Continue reading → Continue reading →
By judgment of 14 July 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:563) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on nutrition and health claims made on…
By Grand Chamber judgment of 28 March 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:236) the Court confirmed its jurisdiction to review the validity of CFSP restrictive measures by preliminary ruling — a constitutional first — and found nothing affecting the validity of the…
By judgment of 19 October 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:779) the Court held that a dynamic IP address registered by a website operator is personal data where the operator has legal means to have the visitor identified via the access provider.
By judgment of 21 September 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:703) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 18(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products must be…
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 —…
By judgment of 8 November 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:836) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 8(1) and Articles 25 and 29 of the Second Council Directive 77/91/EEC of 13 December 1976 on coordination of safeguards which, for the…
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 23 November 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:890) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
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.
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 16 July 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:497) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 5 of the First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks must be…
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 17 December 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:823) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
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 19 November 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:764) the Court held that a broadcaster which transmits its programme signals exclusively by direct injection to distributors, without the signals being accessible to the public during that transmission, does…
By judgment of 25 June 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:420) the Court held that where an EU trade mark and a contested sign contain a dominant Arabic word in both Latin and Arabic script, and the relevant public has a basic knowledge of written Arabic, the meaning…
On 18 December 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2463) that EU law contains no general principle prohibiting discrimination on grounds of obesity as such — but that severe obesity can constitute a "disability" under Directive 2000/78 where it entails a…
By judgment of 20 November 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2388) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1. The Combined Nomenclature in Annex 1 to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the…
By judgment of 11 June 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:385) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The Combined Nomenclature in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common…
By judgment of 12 November 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:750) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 16 June 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:400) the Court held that the ECB's OMT programme falls within the central bank's monetary-policy mandate: with its conditionality, selectivity and safeguards against circumventing the prohibition of monetary…
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…
By judgment of 16 July 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:471) the Court held that an alleged misapplication of EU trade-mark law by a court of the Member State of origin does not engage the public-policy refusal ground of Article 34(1) of Brussels I: recognition may be…
By judgment of 16 July 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:485) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 8(3)(e) of Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights…
By judgment of 12 February 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:87) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
On 19 June 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2013) that the individual character of an unregistered Community design is assessed against specific earlier designs individually, not against a combination of features drawn from several — and that the…
On 22 January 2015 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2015:27) that distribution-right exhaustion applies only to the tangible object placed on the market with the rightholder's consent — transferring the ink of a lawfully bought paper poster onto canvas creates a…
By judgment of 6 February 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:55) the Court held that customs may seize a counterfeit watch bought by an EU resident from a non-EU online shop: the sale itself constitutes "distribution to the public" and "use in the course of trade", with…
By reasoned order of 21 October 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2315) the Court applied Svensson to framing: embedding a work already freely available online with the rightholder's consent is not a communication to a new public and needs no fresh authorisation,…
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 26 March 2015 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2015:199) that Article 3(2) of the InfoSoc Directive does not preclude Member States from extending broadcasters' related rights to communications to the public such as live internet transmissions of sporting…
By judgment of 19 June 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2012) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 4 July 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:449) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Articles 45 TFEU and 48 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding rules of a Member State which do not allow its nationals employed in an international…
By judgment of 6 February 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:52) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Arab…
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 9 April 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:244) that Regulation 1383/2003 does not preclude customs authorities themselves, absent any initiative by the rightholder, from initiating and conducting the proceedings to determine whether detained goods…
By judgment of 5 March 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:144) the Court accepted that private-copying levies may be charged on multifunctional media such as mobile-phone memory cards, subject to a battery of conditions: harm above a minimal threshold, no levy where…
Are the Dutch rules that require people to be fingerprinted if they want a Dutch passport compatible with EU law? Facts In 2010, Ms Roest applied for a passport but refused to be fingerprinted because of the unforeseen consequences of supplying this biometric data. That is to say, it was not clear…
The reference was decided in the joined Willems judgment of 16 April 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:238): the fingerprint obligation for passports stands (as upheld in Schwarz), and Regulation 2252/2004 does not govern any subsequent storage or use of the biometrics…
The reference was decided in the joined Willems judgment of 16 April 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:238): Regulation 2252/2004 does not apply to identity cards at all, whatever their travel validity — so the fingerprint requirement for Dutch ID cards was a purely…
By judgment of 16 April 2015 in the joined Willems cases (ECLI:EU:C:2015:238) the Court held that Regulation 2252/2004 obliges the taking of fingerprints for passports (as upheld in Schwarz) but does not govern any subsequent use or storage of that…
By judgment of 11 July 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:515) the Court held that indiscriminately levying blank media placed on the market for business purposes is permissible only if the scheme provides an effective and non-excessive right to reimbursement; a…
On 10 April 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:254) that the private-copying exception does not cover reproductions from unlawful sources, and that levy systems must not factor unlawful copying into the fair compensation collected from everyone — a Dutch…
On 27 November 2012 the full Court upheld the European Stability Mechanism (ECLI:EU:C:2012:756): the simplified revision of Article 136 TFEU was valid, and the no-bailout clause of Article 125 TFEU does not prohibit a stability mechanism whose assistance…
Can the Dutch State compel airlines to pay customer compensation for delayed flights? Facts KLM customers for a flight leaving from The Philippines to Holland were delayed by 6½ hours, apparently because of a ‘bleed loss body issue’. On another flight, ArkeFly’s customers wishing to fly from…
On 17 October 2013 the Court upheld the validity of Regulation 2252/2004 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:670): taking and storing fingerprints in passports interferes with Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter, but the interference is justified by the aim of preventing…
The EU Commission has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union whether the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) complies with the EU law. Facts ACTA is the acronym for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. It is a treaty supplementing another key piece of international law…
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 order of 7 March 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:149) the Court declared it had no jurisdiction: Portugal's austerity salary cuts did not implement EU law within Article 51 of the Charter, so the Charter-based challenge to the budget law could not be examined in…
When can an airline avoid paying compensation for an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ under Article 5(3) of Regulation 261/2004? Continue reading →