Case C-557/16, Astellas Pharma – measuring the data exclusivity period on a marketing authorisation [judgment 2018, ECLI:EU:C:2018:181]
By judgment of 14 March 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:181) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Field of law
Free movement of goods
40 case reports
Case C-329/16, SNITEM – against state diktats for healthcare software [judgment 2017, ECLI:EU:C:2017:947]
By judgment of 7 December 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:947) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 1(1) and Article 1(2)(a) of Council Directive 93/42/EEC of 14 June 1993 concerning medical devices, as amended by Directive 2007/47/EC of the…
Case C-267/16, Buhagiar – Gibraltar, guns and the constitutional order [judgment 2018, ECLI:EU:C:2018:26]
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…
Case C-24/16, Nintendo – jurisdiction by design [judgment 2017, ECLI:EU:C:2017:724]
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.
Case C-445/15, Nutricia – is an Alzheimer dairy product, a food for a special medical purpose?
A company has made a dairy product for patients with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. The company believes that this makes it a ‘food for a special medical purpose’ within the EU Commission’s Directive 1999/21/EC. However, in the United Kingdom, the Secretary of State for Health believes that that…
Case C-282/15, Queisser Pharma – an amino acid is not necessarily mean to human health [judgment 2017, ECLI:EU:C:2017:26]
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…
Case C-276/15, Hecht-Pharma – incensed at the competition in Frankincense-extract capsules [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:801]
By judgment of 26 October 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:801) the Court held that a product whose essential manufacturing steps are carried out in a pharmacy as part of its normal business, producing up to 100 dispensing-ready packages a day, is not prepared…
Case C-277/15, Servoprax – challenging language obstacles to parallel imported medical products [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:770]
By judgment of 13 October 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:770) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 9 of Directive 98/79/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 1998 on in vitro diagnostic medical devices must be…
Case C-297/15, Ferring Lægemidler – artificially segmenting the market in laxatives? [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:857]
By judgment of 10 November 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:857) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 7(2) of Directive 2008/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 to approximate the laws of the Member States…
Case C-114/15, AUDACE – audacious French farmers buy Spanish veterinary medicinal products [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:813]
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…
Case C-148/15, Deutsche Parkinson Vereinigung – bonuses for buying Dutch mail order medicines [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:776]
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…
Case C-113/15, Breitsamer – individual portions of honey with no country of origin, Pooh cares [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:718]
By judgment of 22 September 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:718) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 1(3)(b) of Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 March 2000 on the approximation of the laws of the…
Case C-19/15, Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb – stopping a company making health claims to doctors [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:563]
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…
Case C-592/14, European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients – ingredients tested on animals [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:703]
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…
Case C-613/14, James Elliott Construction – EU standards and contract construction [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:821]
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 —…
Case C-547/14, Philip Morris Brands – the Second Tobacco Products Directive is invalid [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:325]
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…
Case C-452/14, Doc Generici – one change to 62 marketing authorisations [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:644]
By judgment of 1 October 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:644) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Case C-442/14, Bayer CropScience – Bee deaths? Buzz Off! The data requested is confidential [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:890]
By judgment of 23 November 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:890) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Case C-448/14, Davitas – is a mineral-based detox a novel food? [judgment 2016, ECLI:EU:C:2016:839]
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…
Case C-333/14, The Scotch Whisky Association – the market spirit for the spirit market [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:845]
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…
Case C-207/14, Hotel Sava Rogaška – on appropriating communal mineral water [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:414]
By judgment of 24 June 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:414) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The notion of ‘natural mineral water from one and the same spring’ contained in Article 8(2) of Directive 2009/54/EC of the European Parliament and of…
Case C-157/14, Neptune – mineral water salinity [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:823]
By judgment of 17 December 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:823) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Case C-147/14, Loutfi – Arabic words in Arabic and Latin scripts under EU trade mark law [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:420]
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…
Case C-195/14, Teekanne – selling raspberry vanilla tea without raspberries or vanilla [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:361]
By judgment of 4 June 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:361) the Court held that food labelling may not mislead the consumer by suggesting through images the presence of an ingredient the product does not contain — and a correct ingredients list on the side does not…
Case C-666/13, Rohm Semiconductor – duty-free shopping for infra-red data-transfer devices [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:2388]
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…
Case C-58/14, Amazon EU – installing dictionaries to kindle import taxes going up in flames [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:385]
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…
Case C-503/13, Boston Scientific Medizintechnik GmbH – are pacemakers with a significantly increased risk of failure defective? [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:148]
On 5 March 2015 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2015:148) that where products in the same group have a potential defect, all products of that group may be classified as defective without proving the defect in each individual device — and that the costs of…
Case C-539/13, Merck Canada – prior notification under the Specific Agreement [judgment 2015, ECLI:EU:C:2015:87]
By judgment of 12 February 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:87) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Case C-358/13, D. – legal highs [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:2060]
By judgment of 10 July 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2060) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 1(2)(b) of Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal…
Case C-291/13, Papasavvas – online libel, defamation and injurious falsehood [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:2209]
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",…
Case C-217/13, Oberbank – seeing trade marked red in financial affairs [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:2012]
By judgment of 19 June 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2012) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Case C-204/12, Essent – can Flemish green electricity certificates resist green electricity in free movement? [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:2192]
By judgment of 11 September 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2192) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Case C-613/12, Helm Düngemittel – certifying the origin of a cargo from Egypt [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:52]
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…
Case C-583/12, Sintax Trading – who decides whether imported goods infringe design rights? [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:244]
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…
Case C-472/12, Panasonic Italia – imported computer monitors or just EU-dumped plasma-TV screens? [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:2082]
By judgment of 17 July 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2082) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Case C-512/12, Octapharma France – on the regulation of plasma intended for transfusion [judgment 2014, ECLI:EU:C:2014:149]
By judgment of 13 March 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:149) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
Case C-450/12, HARK – Chinese stove pipe sets and EU anti-dumping law [judgment 2013, ECLI:EU:C:2013:824]
By judgment of 12 December 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:824) 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…
Case C-521/11, Amazon – Austrian private-copy ‘fair compensation’ and EU copyright law [judgment 2013, ECLI:EU:C:2013:515]
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…
Case C-137/12, Commission v Council – exclusive competence in conditional access services? [judgment 2013, ECLI:EU:C:2013:675]
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,…
Case C-109/12, Lyocentre – when a medical device becomes a medicinal product [judgment 2013, ECLI:EU:C:2013:626]
By judgment of 3 October 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:626) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.