Monitoring References to the Court of Justice of the European Union
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62 case reports
Hungary obliges retailers of household goods with a turnover above HUF 1 billion to cap their margins on certain products at their earlier average, and at most 15%, and to keep those products in stock. Rossmann was fined. The Kúria asks whether the Services Directive and freedom of establishment allow such a scheme, and whether a refunded fine must carry interest.
France has banned nicotine pouches outright, from sale and use to manufacture and export. The Conseil d'État upheld the ban on selling and using them, but asks the Court of Justice whether France may also forbid producing, transporting and exporting pouches meant only for sale in other Member States.
Since March 2025 Italian law treats people born abroad with another nationality as never having acquired Italian citizenship by descent, unless they meet narrow conditions. The Corte costituzionale considers that compatible with EU law, but has asked the Court of Justice anyway: do Article 9 TEU and Article 20 TFEU preclude the rule?
The recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive makes producers of medicines and cosmetics pay at least 80% of the cost of removing micropollutants from wastewater. The industry's direct actions were dismissed as inadmissible; the Irish High Court has now sent the validity question to Luxembourg, and in Poland's parallel action Advocate General Kokott has proposed that the core of the scheme be annulled.
A Dutch card issuer asked a customer of twelve years to identify again online with a photo of an identity document and a selfie. The customer refused and the card was cancelled. The Hoge Raad asks whether storing a face photo for identification is biometric processing, whether the anti-money laundering rules require a copy of the identity document at all, and whether a photograph reveals racial or ethnic origin.
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 12 October 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:758) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 28(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Regulation…
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…
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 26 July 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:597) 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 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…
By judgment of 18 July 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:562) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 45 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding legislation of a Member State, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, under which the…
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…
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 →
On 14 June 2017 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2017:456) that the operators of The Pirate Bay themselves make a communication to the public by indexing and managing torrents of protected works, despite the content sitting on users' machines.
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.
By judgment of 25 January 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:38) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Articles 41(1) and 44(1) of Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal…
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.
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…
By judgment of 19 January 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:26) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Articles 6 and 7 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and…
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…
On 1 March 2017 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2017:144) that Article 9 of the InfoSoc Directive — provisions concerning "access to cable of broadcasting services" — does not cover national legislation permitting the immediate retransmission by cable,…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
On 23 December 2015 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2015:845) that Scottish minimum unit pricing for alcohol restricts the free movement of goods and may be justified on health grounds only if less trade-restrictive means — notably taxation — cannot achieve the…
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.
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…
By judgment of 18 December 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2466) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
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…
When the EU Commission imposes a fine on a cartel but does not apportion how much each company should pay, then is it a matter for national law whether and how that fine is paid between the individual members of the cartel? Or if it is a matter of EU law, then does EU law contain provisions as to…
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 11 September 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2194) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
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 11 September 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2192) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Are Articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the EU’s data retention Directive 2006/24/EC compatible with Articles 7, 8 and 11 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights? Facts There are three actions to this reference from the Austrian Constitutional Court. Each concerns the EU’s data retention Directive…
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 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 28 February 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:127) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 23 January 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:25) the Court held that technological protection measures spanning both consoles and game media enjoy legal protection, but only within proportionality: the national court must examine whether comparable…
On 27 March 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:192) that an access provider whose services are used to infringe copyright is an "intermediary" that may be enjoined, and that an outcome-based blocking injunction — leaving the choice of measures to the ISP…