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The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Berlin (Germany) has filed an indictment against eight suspects in connection with a VAT fraud scheme involving the trade of luxury cars and medical face masks, with an estimated damage of €80 million. Four of the defendants are charged with orchestrating the VAT fraud as members of an organised criminal group; among them is the suspected ringleader. Another defendant is charged with aiding and abetting. Two others are accused of money laundering activities. A notary, believed to have assisted the organised criminal group during a period of a number of years, is charged with forgery and false notarisation. The investigation uncovered a complex network through which luxury cars and medical face masks were traded, using shell companies in several countries – including Czechia, Germany and Poland. The defendants are believed to have used people in economic difficulty from Poland and Latvia as straw men. It is also alleged that the ma...

According to Judgment of the European Court of Justice in Case C-252/21 (Meta Platforms and Others), a national competition authority can find, in the context of the examination of an abuse of a dominant position, that the GDPR has been infringed. Bound by the duty of sincere cooperation, it must nonetheless take into consideration any decision or investigation by the competent supervisory authority pursuant to that regulation. Meta Platforms Ireland operates the online social network Facebook within the European Union. When they register with Facebook, its users accept the general terms drawn up by that company and, consequently, the data and cookies policies. According to those policies, Meta Platforms Ireland collects data about user activities on and off the social network and links them with the Facebook accounts of the users concerned. The latter data, also known as ‘off-Facebook data’, are data concerning visits to third-party webpages and apps as well as data concerning the...

With its Schrems II-judgment of 16 July 2020, the Court of Justice declared invalid the EU-US Privacy Shield , governing the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States.  In the absence of this EU-US Privacy Shield, in February 2021 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), as an EU institution, referred its contract with its US-based videoconferencing operator to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS).  It asked the EDPS whether these rules complied with the EU’s data protection rules contained in the EU Data Protection Regulation . The EDPS issued two temporary authorisations, in 2021 and 2022, allowing the CJEU to use these contractual clauses. It adopted its final decision on 13 July 2023.  The EDPS has decided that the CJEU’s videoconferencing services meet the data protection standards under EU Data Protection Regulation. The CJEU is the first EU institution to obtain such approval from the EDPS. The main characteristics ...

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted a dispute resolution decision on the basis of Art. 65 GDPR concerning a draft decision of the Irish Data Protection Authority (DPA) regarding TikTok Technology Limited (TTL).  The binding decision addresses legal questions arising from objections to the draft decision of the Irish DPA as lead supervisory authority (LSA) regarding TikTok Technology Ltd. The EDPB binding decision ensures the correct and consistent application of the GDPR by the national DPAs. The Irish DPA issued the draft decision following an own-volition inquiry into the processing by TTL of personal data of registered TikTok users between the ages of 13 and 17, as well as certain issues regarding TTL’s processing of personal data of children under the age of 13. As no consensus was reached on the objections lodged by DPAs, the EDPB was called upon to settle the dispute between the DPAs within two months. The objections concerned, among other things, whe...

A Berlin based bank offered a credit card on their website. Using an online form, the bank requested various data about the applicant's income, occupation and personal details. Based on the information requested and additional data from external sources, the bank's algorithm rejected the customer's application without any particular justification. The algorithm is based on criteria and rules previously defined by the bank. Since the client had a good credit rating and a regular high income, he doubted the automated rejection and complained to the Berlin data protection commissioner.  Even when asked by the complainant, the bank only provided blanket information about the scoring procedure, detached from the individual case. However, it refused to tell him why it assumed a poor creditworthiness in his case. The complainant was thus unable to understand which data basis and factors formed the basis of the automated rejection and on the basis of which criteria his credit car...

The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Microsoft may have breached EU competition rules by tying or bundling its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Microsoft is a global technology company offering productivity and business software, cloud computing and personal computing. Teams is a cloud-based communication and collaboration tool. It offers functionalities such as messaging, calling, video meetings, file sharing and brings together Microsoft's and third-party workplace tools and other applications. The coronavirus outbreak accelerated a shift to remote working as well as businesses' transition to the cloud and the adoption of cloud-based software for communication and collaboration. The transition to the cloud has enabled the emergence of new market players and business models offering customers the ability to use multiple types...

According to the Judgment of the European Court of Justice dated 6/7/2023 in Case C-510/21 (Austrian Airlines ),  as regards accidents on board an aircraft, the strict liability of airlines under the Montreal convention extends to inadequate first aid administered on board an aircraft. On a flight operated by Austrian Airlines, a jug containing hot coffee fell from a catering trolley and scalded a passenger. First aid was administered to him on board the aircraft. The passenger brought an action before the Austrian courts seeking damages and a declaration establishing Austrian Airlines’ liability for all future damage resulting from the aggravation of his burns on account of the inadequate first aid administered on board the aircraft. Austrian Airlines contends that the action should be dismissed, since it was brought after the expiry of the two-year time limit provided for in the Montreal convention [1] in respect of actions for damages relating to an accident that took place...

The International Court of Justice will hold public hearings in the case concerning Application of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Canada and the Netherlands v. Syrian Arab Republic) starting on Wednesday 19 July 2023, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court.  The hearings will be devoted to the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by Canada and the Netherlands on 8 June 2023. On 8 June 2023, Canada and the Kingdom of the Netherlands filed a joint application instituting proceedings against the Syrian Arab Republic before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), concerning alleged violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the “Convention against Torture”).  In their Application, Canada and the Netherlands contend that “Syria has committed countless violations of international law, beginning at least in 2011, wi...

In its final decision (8.6.2023) in the case of Ferrara and Others v. Italy (application no. 2394/22 and 18 others) the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously declared the applications inadmissible.   The case concerned the failure of the State authorities to pay legal fees awarded to the applicants by “assignment orders” (ordinanze di assegnazione) – enforcement orders aimed at implementing decisions or judgments issued under Law no. 89 of 2001 (“the Pinto Act”, a remedy dealing with excessively long proceedings before the courts).  The applicants are lawyers who were acting in this case as avvocati antistatari (lawyers who covered legal and other court fees for their clients and were directly awarded repayment by the courts). The Court held that the multiple applications lodged by the applicants were an abuse of the right of application under Article 35 § 3 (a) (admissibility criteria) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Facts The applicants, Alessandro...

During its 40th plenary meeting (Strasbourg, 15-16 June 2023), the  Council of Europe European Commission for the efficiency of justice (CEPEJ) adopted the revised Time Management Checklist and its Explanatory Note.  The first version was adopted by the CEPEJ in 2005 and was very successful since then within the European judicial systems. The Checklist is a diagnostic and management tool to help the judiciary to collect information on and analyse relevant aspects of the duration of judicial proceedings. It provides an initial set of questions with purpose of helping in collecting appropriate information about the cases and to analyse relevant aspects of duration of court proceedings. The questions are structured around six indicators pertaining to the establishment and monitoring of duration of proceedings, timeframes, case weighting and use of information and communication technologies in courts. Based on the collected information and outcomes of the analysis, its purpos...