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Change in the publication mode of the Official Journal of the European Union: How to consult information concerning cases lodged before the Court of Justice or the General Court or cases in respect of which a decision has been delivered by those courts from 1 October 2023.  On 1 October 2023, the Official Journal of the European Union will be switching to act-by-act publication. In this new publication mode, the Official Journal will no longer be a collation of acts with a table of contents. Instead, each act will be published individually as an authentic Official Journal in PDF format. In order to make it easier to consult the communications provided for in the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice and the General Court, those communications will nevertheless continue to be issued at the same intervals as they are currently and will be published in groups, in principle on Mondays.  Notices relating to cases lodged before the Court of Justice or the General Court or decis...

According to the Judgment of the General Court (27.9.2023) in Case T-172/21 (Valve Corporation v Commission), as regards the online video games, the Court confirms that geo-blocking of activation keys for the Steam platform infringed EU competition law.  In agreeing bilaterally to that geo-blocking, the operator of the Steam platform, Valve and five PC video games publishers unlawfully restricted cross-border sales of certain PC video games that are compatible with that platform. Acting on information received concerning geo-blocking of certain PC video games on the Steam platform according to users’ geographical location, the Commission began an investigation. By decisions of 20 January 2021, it found that the operator of the platform, Valve and five games publishers, namely Bandai, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax, infringed EU competition law.  The Commission found that Valve and the five publishers had participated in a group of anti-competitive agreements or con...

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly  has asked the European Parliament  for formal support for her efforts to get the European Commission to act on her recommendations to reduce systemic delays in dealing with requests for public access to documents. In a Special Report to Parliament, the Ombudsman noted that while the Commission indicated that it is already implementing most of her suggestions, Ombudsman inquiries related to public access continue to show significant delays. These delays typically concern access requests related to areas of significant public importance. Recent examples show that it took the Commission over a year to deal with requests concerning documents relating to migration, EU recovery funds, and sanctions against Russia. At the same time, the Ombudsman has seen a sharp increase in complaints about access to document delays in the Commission, with the number in 2023 already four times higher than it was for the entirety of 2020.  “Citizens right...

One of the main objectives of  Convention 108+  is to facilitate the free flow of information between Parties to the Convention and from Parties to non-Parties while at the same time ensuring that the protection “flies” with the personal data when it leaves the jurisdiction of the Parties.  The main reasons for such requirements are laid down in the Preamble of the Convention: “(…) it is necessary to secure the human dignity and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of every individual and, given the diversification, intensification and globalisation of data processing and personal data flows, personal autonomy based on a person’s right to control of his or her personal data and the processing of such data”. Pre-approved standardised safeguards provided by legally binding and enforceable instruments can ensure an appropriate level of protection guaranteed by Convention 108+ in cases where personal data are sent outside of its territorial scope of appli...

On 7th July 2023, the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Data Protection Board’s trainees organised a Conference on the topic of Artificial Intelligence. Titled,  “the impact of AI on data protection: ensuring privacy in the era of innovation” , this joint event invited other trainees of the EU institutions to reflect on and discuss the developments of AI, their impact on individuals and their privacy, and some of the possible measures necessary to put in place to comply with data protection law. AI is a multidisciplinary topic, affecting numerous aspects of individuals’ day-to-day lives. To represent accurately the pluralism of this topic, the EDPS and EDPB trainees organised a panel discussion with various actors in the field - from technology experts, lawyers to politicians - each sharing their views and analysis. Discussions focused on taking stock of some of AI’s key developments so far, the risks that these may entail, the role of the EDPS and the...

The case Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others (application no. 39371/20), concerning the greenhouse gas emissions from 33 member States, which in the applicants’ view contribute to the phenomenon of global warming resulting, among other things, in heatwaves affecting the applicants’ living conditions and health will be heard before ECtHR on 27 September 2023. The applicants are Portuguese nationals aged between 11 and 24. The applicants claim that the forest fires that have occurred in Portugal each year since 2017 are a direct result of global warming. They allege a risk to their health on account of these fires, and assert that they have already experienced disrupted sleep patterns, allergies and respiratory problems, which are aggravated by the hot weather.  The fifth and sixth applicants stress that climate disruption is causing very powerful storms in winter and maintain that their house, which is situated near the sea in Lisbon, is potentially at risk of dama...

The Court of Justice of the European Union, by judgment, dated 14 September 2023, in Case C-632/21, in proceedings between JF and NS, and Diamond Resorts Europe Limited and others, concerning an application for a declaration that timeshare contracts concluded between the applicants in the main proceedings and Diamond Resorts Europe are void, ruled that: 1. The provisions of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) are applicable, in the context of a dispute before a court of a Member State, to contracts the two parties of which are United Kingdom nationals, to the extent that those contracts have a foreign element. 2. Article 6(2) of Regulation No 593/2008 must be interpreted as meaning that: - Where a consumer contract fulfils the requirements laid down in Article 6(1) of that regulation (the contract has been concluded by the consumer for a purpose which can be regarded as being outside his or her trade or professi...

According to the Judgment of the European Court of Justice dated 14.9.2023, in Case C-27/22 (Volkswagen Group Italia and Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft), the principle ne bis in idem applies to penalties, imposed for unfair commercial practices, that are classified as administrative penalties of a criminal nature. That principle precludes criminal proceedings in respect of the same facts from being initiated or maintained where there is a final decision, even if that decision is issued subsequently. On 4 August 2016, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) imposed a fine of € 5 million on Volkswagen Group Italia SpA (VWGI) and Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (VWAG) for unfair commercial practices against consumers.  Those practices concerned, first, the marketing of diesel vehicles in Italy, from 2009, which contained software allowing the measurement of emission levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) to be distorted during pollutant emissions inspection tests and, second...

Statements made by the Minister of Justice and Prime Minister concerning an important political and economic figure who had been convicted at first instance and had subsequently appealed violated presumption of innocence. In Chamber’s judgment dated 7.9.2023 in the case of Bavčar v. Slovenia (application no. 17053/20) the European Court of Human Rights held that there had been by 6 votes to 1, a violation of Article 6 § 2 (presumption of innocence) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and unanimously, no violation of Article 7 (no punishment without law). Facts  The applicant is a former Slovenian politician who played an important role in the independence process of the country as the Minister of the Interior and later also served as Minister for European Affairs. Subsequently, he became president of one of the largest Slovenian holding companies. In 2016, in retrial proceedings, he was convicted by the first-instance court of two acts of money laundering, namely, acc...

Job Opening : Associate Legal Officer (Temporary) at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), Vienna, Austria. This position is located within the International Trade Law Division (ITLD), Office of Legal Affairs (OLA), which serves as a substantive Secretariat to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and is based in Vienna (Austria). The Associate Legal Officer reports to a Senior Legal Officer as first reporting Officer, and to the Director of the Division as second reporting Officer. For more information on UNCITRAL please visit https://uncitral.un.org/ Responsibilities Within assigned authority, the Associate Legal Officer will be responsible for the following specific duties: • Conduct legal research and analysis and prepare studies in international trade and investment law, comparative studies, briefs, reports and correspondence. • Assist legal officers in the review of legal documents, instruments, or other mat...

Citing “mounting evidence” that spyware has been used for illegitimate purposes by several Council of Europe member states, a committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has urged five governments to provide information on their use of such spyware within three months, and fully investigate all cases of abuse. Approving a draft resolution on Pegasus and similar spyware and secret state surveillance, PACE's Legal Affairs Committee unequivocally condemned “the use of spyware by state authorities for political purposes”. It urged Poland, Hungary, Greece, Spain and Azerbaijan to promptly and fully investigate all cases of abuse of spyware, sanction any they find, and provide redress to victims. The draft resolution, based on a report by Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD), also called on other member states which seem to have acquired or used Pegasus – including Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – to clarify their use of it, and the mecha...

According to the Judgment of the European Court of Justice (7.9.2023) in Case C-216/21 ( Asociaţia ‘Forumul Judecătorilor din România’ ), the promotion of judges to a higher court, based on an assessment, by members of that court, of their work and conduct, is compatible with EU law .  The relevant substantive conditions and procedural rules must, however, be such as to dispel any reasonable doubt as to the independence and the impartiality of the judges concerned, once they have been promoted. In 2019, the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) of Romania approved a reform of the procedure for the promotion of judges to higher courts. The ‘Forum of Judges of Romania’ Association and a private individual are contesting that reform before the Court of Appeal, Ploieşti (Romania).  The applicants in the main proceedings submit that replacing the old written exams with an assessment, by (i) the president and (ii) members of the higher court concerned, of candidates’ work and co...

Vacancy : Legal Expert in the Single Resolution Board (SRB) in Brussels, Belgium. Duration of contract 3 years (renewable). Estimated monthly basic salary: 6.169,72 € The Single Resolution Board (SRB) is the central resolution authority within the Banking Union, which at present is 20 eurozone countries and Bulgaria. Together with the national resolution authorities it forms the Single Resolution Mechanism. The SRB works closely with the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the European Banking Authority and national authorities. Its mission is to ensure an orderly resolution of failing banks, protecting the taxpayer from state bail-outs, which is promoting financial stability. The Legal Expert will contribute to the successful completion of the work of a multidisciplinary and multinational legal team headed by the General Counsel and coordinated by the Team Leaders of the respective teams. The Legal Expert will actively participate in the representation of the SRB as an...

In Chamber's judgment dated 5.9.2023 in the case of Van den Kerkhof v. Belgium (application no. 13630/19) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time) of the European Convention on Human Rights.  The case concerned the length of civil proceedings pending before a court of the Brussels judicial district. In the present case the proceedings were brought by the applicant against the vendors of a flat and the real estate agency that had served as an intermediary for the sale.  The Court held that the applicant’s case had not been heard within a reasonable time, noting that seven years and eight months had elapsed for two levels of jurisdiction and that the proceedings were still pending before the French-Language Brussels Court of First Instance.  It emphasised that the system for protecting the rights guaranteed by the Convention was based on the principle of subsidia...

The significant systemic delays and failure by the European Commission to comply with the time limits in the legislation as regards requests for public access to documents, amount to maladministration. The European Ombudsman’s own-initiative inquiry looked into how the European Commission deals with requests for public access to documents; in particular, how it complies with the time limits for dealing with requests, which are set out in the EU legislation on public access to documents. The Ombudsman’s inquiry found that there are systemic and significant delays, particularly in how the Commission deals with requests to review initial decisions on access requests, and that it often fails to meet the time limits set out in the applicable legislation by a considerable amount.  The Ombudsman has consistently taken the view that ‘access delayed is access denied’, as documents and information sought are often time sensitive and can lose relevance to the requester if delays occur. Th...

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...