European Court of Justice (News)

Afrin
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
Family reunification: European Union law precludes national legislation which requires, without exception, that an application for family reunification be submitted in person at a competent diplomatic post

E. D. L. (Motif de refus fondé sur la maladie)
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
European arrest warrant: a manifest risk that the health of the requested person will be jeopardised justifies temporarily suspending his or her surrender and obliges the executing authority to ask the issuing authority for information concerning the conditions in which it intends to prosecute or detain that person

Significant amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the General Court of the European Union will come into force on 1 April

Xella Magyarország
Free movement of capital
Advocate General Ćapeta: EU law does not, in principle, preclude national legislation which allows for the screening of foreign direct investment of third country provenance even if implemented via an EU-based company

Volkswagen Group Italia and Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
According to Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona, Volkswagen cannot be penalised in Italy for ‘Dieselgate’, after having been penalised in Germany, if there has not been sufficient coordination between the penalty proceedings of both States

Green Network (Injonction de remboursement de frais)
Freedom of establishment
National regulatory authorities for energy may have the power to order electricity undertakings to repay sums received in breach of consumer protection requirements

Hauptpersonalrat der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer
Principles of Community law
Live streaming by videoconference of classes in state school education falls within the scope of the GDPR

Wizz Air Hungary v Commission () and aide au sauvetage)
State aid
The action against the Commission’s decision approving the aid granted by Romania to the airline Blue Air in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic is dismissed in its entirety

Syndicat Uniclima
Environment and consumers
Fire safety in establishments open to the public: Member States may not impose additional requirements on pressure equipment bearing the CE marking for the purposes of making that equipment available on the national market

Daimler (Responsabilité des constructeurs de véhicules munis de dispositifs d’invalidation)
Environment and consumers
The purchaser of a vehicle equipped with an unlawful defeat device has a right to compensation from the car manufacturer where that device has caused damage to that purchaser

Saatgut-Treuhandverwaltung (KWS Meridian)
Agriculture and fisheries
Protection of plant variety rights: no minimum level of compensation set

SCHUFA Holding and Others (Scoring)
Principles of Community law
Advocate General Pikamäe: the automated establishment of a probability concerning the ability of a person to service a loan constitutes profiling under the GDPR

Colt Technology Services and Others
Telecommunications operators may be obliged to provide, upon request from a judicial authority, communication interception operations in return for a fixed rate

Commission v Bulgaria (Double manquement - Pollution par les PM10)
Law governing the institutions
The Commission’s first action for a twofold failure to fulfil obligations in relation to air pollution is inadmissible

Towercast
Competition

The prohibition of abuse of a dominant position laid down by the Treaties permits an ex post control, at national level, of a concentration of undertakings with a non-Community dimension

Royal Antwerp Football Club
Freedom of movement for persons
Football: according to Advocate General Szpunar the UEFA rules on home-grown players are partially incompatible with EU law

Les Mousquetaires and ITM Entreprises v Commission
Competition
The Court sets aside in part the judgments of the General Court and, consequently, annuls the decisions of the Commission ordering inspections at the premises of a number of French undertakings in the distribution sector on account of suspicions of anticompetitive practices

Prigozhina v Council
External relations
The General Court annuls the restrictive measures applied to Ms Violetta Prigozhina, mother of Mr Yevgeniy Prigozhin, in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine

Judicial statistics 2022: proceedings marked by the major issues facing today’s world (the rule of law, the environment, the protection of privacy in the digital era and so forth) and by the restrictive measures adopted by the European Union in the context of the war in Ukraine

Stadt Frankfurt (Oder) and FWA
Approximation of laws
Drinking water policy: according to Advocate General Medina, Member States are obliged not to authorise a project that may cause a deterioration in the quality of a body of water