Monitoring References to the Court of Justice of the European Union
Field of law
41 case reports
Brussels I bis gives employees their own jurisdiction rules, which cannot be contracted out of. The Bundesarbeitsgericht asks whether a claim pleaded purely in tort escapes them when the wrong was done inside an employment relationship — or whether the relationship, not the label, decides where the case is heard.
A Sofia hospital trains a doctor to specialist level and binds them to five more years, on pain of repaying every training cost plus two months' salary. The Sofiyski rayonen sad asks whether that is a restriction on free movement, an unfair consumer term, or an element of coercion under Article 5 of the Charter.
Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council sets the basic pay of judges in the middle ranks with no objective, predictable, stable or transparent rules to bind it. A Razgrad court asks whether Article 19(1) TEU tolerates that much discretion over a judge's salary.
By judgment of 26 June 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:492) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Council Directive 79/7/EEC of 19 December 1978 on the progressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of…
Judgment of 17 April 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:257): a church's claim that religion is an occupational requirement must be open to effective judicial review — and Articles 21 and 47 of the Charter apply even between private parties.
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 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…
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 22 June 2017 (ECLI:EU:C:2017:489) the Court held that the Dutch pre-pack — insolvency prepared in advance to relaunch the business immediately after bankruptcy — does not fall within the Article 5(1) insolvency exception of the Transfers…
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…
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 17 November 2016 (ECLI:EU:C:2016:883) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 1(1) and (2) of Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on temporary agency work must be…
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…
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…
One quirk of Spanish labour law is that where a state body abusively employs someone on a temporary contract without fully complying with the law, Spanish case law will deem that person to be working on the basis of ‘a non-permanent contract of indefinite duration’. The problem is that some…
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 30 April 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:291) the Court held that "establishment" in the Collective Redundancies Directive means the local employment unit to which workers are assigned — each Woolworths store, not the chain — so redundancies in stores…
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 13 May 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:317) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The term ‘establishment’ in Article 1(1)(a)(ii) of Council Directive 98/59/EC of 20 July 1998 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States…
For more than a decade, Italy has employed hundreds of thousands of teachers and admin staff on endlessly-renewed ‘school-year’ contracts. Is this employer not simply abusing its use of fixed-term contracts contrary to Directive 1999/70/EC? Or is Italy correct that its policy is objectively…
By judgment of 12 February 2015 (ECLI:EU:C:2015:86) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
On 4 December 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2411) that collective agreement provisions setting minimum fees for genuinely self-employed service providers fall within Article 101 TFEU — the self-employed are undertakings — but not where the providers…
By judgment of 12 June 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:1755) the Court held that Article 7 of the Working Time Directive precludes national law under which the right to an allowance in lieu of untaken paid annual leave is extinguished by the worker's death — the…
On 11 September 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2197) that terms of a terminated collective agreement which continue to produce effects under national "continued effect" (Nachwirkung) rules are "terms and conditions agreed in a collective agreement"…
On 26 March 2015 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2015:200) that a person performing real and genuine activities in a French work-rehabilitation centre (CAT) is a "worker" for the purposes of the Working Time Directive and thus entitled to paid annual leave,…
By judgment of 10 July 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2055) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “National legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, according to which an employer can request from the Member State concerned payment…
On 3 September 2014 the Grand Chamber ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2132) that parody is an autonomous concept of EU law with only two essential characteristics: it evokes an existing work while being noticeably different from it, and it constitutes an expression…
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 19 June 2014 (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2005) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.
By judgment of 7 November 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:711) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 3(1)(c) of Directive 96/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1996 concerning the posting of workers in the…
On 6 March 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:124) that the Transfers Directive applies only where the transferred part of the undertaking was a functionally autonomous economic unit before the transfer; absent that, the Directive does not require…
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…
French farmers have been nipping over the Spanish border to go shopping for their veterinary medicinal products. This is not allowed under French law, only French-authorised wholesalers can import veterinary drugs. The French farmers wonder if the internal market exists. Continue reading →
By order of 13 June 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:398) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “The relevant European Union law, in particular, Article 7(1) of Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003…
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 12 December 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:823) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “Article 2(2)(a) of Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation…
By reasoned order of 21 February 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:102) the Court confirmed that a worker unable to take scheduled annual leave because of sick leave keeps the right to take that leave at another time, if need be outside the reference period, and that…
On 15 January 2014 the Court ruled (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2) that Article 27 of the Charter, whether alone or read with Directive 2002/14, cannot be invoked in a dispute between private parties to disapply conflicting national law.
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…
By judgment of 18 July 2013 (ECLI:EU:C:2013:489) the Court ruled, in the words of the operative part: “1.