Flux européens

Something to digest quietly, to start this new year: in Gaz de France v STS the French Conseil d’Etat annuled an arbitral award for breach of ordre public. The Conseil objected in particular to the panel’s denial of mandatory French (administrative) law. Reed Smith have analysis here, including of the issue on jurisdiction (Conseil d’Etat or Court de Cassation).

Upon reading the judgment, my question is this (just putting it in the group, as it were): does the Conseil have terminology right where it seems to classify breach of mandatory law as a violation of ordre public (it is the latter only which justifies annulment under the New York Convention)? Incidentally (at 5) it also refers to the possibility of mandatory EU law being part of this interpretation of ordre public. This structure is clearly inspired by the Rome I Regulation where, as I have noted before, the presence of mandatory law, overriding mandatory law, and ordre public, is causing confusion.

Happy New Year, happy reading, Geert.

 

Rome I Regulation – Commentary, edited by / a cura di Ulrich Magnus, perte Mankowski, Otto Schmidt Verlag, 2017, ISBN 9783504080068, pp. 928, EUR 229.

One of the great steps towards a European Private International Law and for the facilitation of transborder trade is the Rome I Regulation which europeanised the applicable law for international contracts throughout the Union (though except Denmark). This Regulation has to be applied since the end of 2009. It has moderately reformed and replaced the former Rome Convention which had already proven its practical value for over two decades as many national decisions and also judgments of the European Court of Justice evidence. It is therefore high time for a truly pan-European Commentary on the Rome I Regulation which takes account of the European nature of this instrument. This is reflected by the team of contributors that originates from all over Europe assembling first experts in their countries. The editors are Ulrich Magnus and Peter Mankowski who have already edited the well-received pan-European Commentaries on the Brussels I Regulation and the Brussels IIbis Regulation. The Commentary (in English) provides a thorough article-by-article analysis which intensely uses the rich case law and doctrine and suggests clear and practical solutions for disputed issues. It gives a comprehensive and actual account of the present state of the European international contract law. For international lawyers, practitioners as well as academics, it is an indispensable must.

Authors include: Andrea Bonomi, Alfonso-Luis Calvo Caravaca, Javier Carrascosa Gonzalez, Richard G. Fentiman, Franco Ferrari, Francisco Garcimartín Alférez, Helmut Heiss, Luís Pietro Rocha de Lima Pinheiro, Ulrich Magnus, Peter Mankowski, Guillermo Palao Moreno, Ilaria Queirolo, Bea Verschraegen, Michael Wilderspin, M.H. (Mathijs) ten Wolde.

Our children often hug me goodnight while I am working away at a brief or sitting next to a huge pile of exam papers, waiting to be marked. And especially in the latter case, I confess this is often accompanied by a pint of ale. My youngest daughter the other day told me she had had a dream that night in which I had found a cure for all cancers.

This was the modus operandi: I had spilt said beer (in said daughter’s dream) over the exam papers and by some interaction between beer and paper, the cure had come to me. Eureka! Somehow I have always known beer will save the world…

A warming thought for this chilly season. And one to lift our spirits, hoping for a less challenging 2017.

Enjoy your undoubtedly deserved breaks. Geert.

 

 

 

 

 

Commission / Breyer
Droit institutionnel
L’avocat général Bobek propose un accès élargi aux documents de la Cour

L’avocat général Sharpston considère que l’accord de libre-échange avec Singapour ne peut être conclu que par l’Union et les États membres agissant de concert

Commission / Aer Lingus
Aide d'État
La Cour confirme que l’Irlande doit récupérer la somme de 8 euros par passager auprès des compagnies aériennes bénéficiaires d’une aide d’État illégale

Conseil / Front Polisario
Agriculture
Les accords d’association et de libéralisation conclus entre l’UE et le Maroc ne sont pas applicables au Sahara occidental

Tele2 Sverige
Rapprochement des législations
Les États membres ne peuvent pas imposer une obligation générale de conservation de données aux fournisseurs de services de communications électroniques

Vervloet e.a.
Liberté d'établissement
La garantie accordée par la Belgique aux sociétés coopératives financières ARCO enfreint le droit de l’Union

Gutiérrez Naranjo
Rapprochement des législations
La jurisprudence espagnole limitant dans le temps les effets de la nullité des clauses « plancher », insérées dans les contrats de prêt hypothécaire en Espagne, est incompatible avec le droit de l’Union

AGET Iraklis
Rapprochement des législations
Le droit de l’Union n’empêche pas, en principe, un État membre de s’opposer, en certaines circonstances, à des licenciements collectifs dans l’intérêt de la protection des travailleurs et de l’emploi

Commission / World Duty Free Group
Aide d'État
Selon la Cour, le Tribunal de l’UE a commis une erreur de droit en annulant la décision de la Commission déclarant un régime fiscal espagnol incompatible avec le marché intérieur

The Court held in C-102/15 Siemens just before mine and their summer break. It had escaped my attention. At issue was whether debt arising from the unjustified repayment of a fine for infringement of competition law falls within the scope of application of the Brussels I Recast. It does not. The Court distinguished flyLAL: while private actions brought to ensure compliance with competition law fall within the scope of the Regulation, a penalty imposed by an administrative authority in the exercise of the regulatory powers conferred upon it under national legislation comes within the concept of ‘administrative matters’, excluded from the scope of Regulation No 44/2001 in accordance with Article 1(1) thereof.(at 35).

An action in unjust enrichment related to the interest due, following to and fro, imposition and rescinding, ending finally in confirmation of the fine, is intimately bound up with that fine and therefore follows it in the exclusion.

A judgment of note for those who wish to keep complete overview.

Geert.

(Handbook of) European private international law, 2nd ed. 2016, Chapter 2, Heading 2.2.2.2 ff.

Anyone with an interest in mutual recognition, risk and trade, and the exhaustive effect of EU food law should consult the Opinion of Advocate General Bobek in Case C-672/15 Noria Distribution, which was released last week.

Noria Distribution SARL (‘Noria’) is being prosecuted for having sold in France food supplements containing vitamins and minerals in quantities exceeding maxima set under French law. Noria does not deny doing so. However, it argues in response that those maxima are not valid because they were set in breach of EU law. Noria adds that it produces and sells the same products lawfully in other Member States.

The Advocate General suggests EU law on the issue is not exhaustive. Member States can set their own limits. An issue under discussion in the national proceeding is the origin (national or international) of the science underpinning the limits. The AG justifiably advises that the origin of the data is irrelevant. EU law concern is not about the details of bibliographies. It is rather that restrictions be justified on the basis of solid science demonstrating real risk or at least the inability to exclude risk: whether this is the case is for the national court to determine. The precautionary principle can be invoked by the Member States in setting their limits.

The AG’s approach is very sensible. Without losing himself in lengthy discussion, he reminds the national courts and authorities of the benchmarks for risk management.

Geert.

 

Do the newly negotiated EU rules on endocrine disruptors illustrate regulatory chill /the ‘freezing effect’ of international trade law?

The new European Commission proposals on endoctrine disruptors are, of course’ ‘science based’. It has been reported (EurActiv, 12 December 2016 and last consulted by me on 13 December) that publication of the proposals was followed by a closed door meeting (minutes of which were released only after a freedom of information request) between the EC and a select number of countries (US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay on 13 July this year). Discussion centered around the potential WTO incompatibility of parts of the EC proposal, particularly those surrounding the tolerance levels for endocrine disruptors present in imported substances (food and feed in particularly). The EC reportedly are prepared to replace “negligible exposure” with “negligible risk from exposure”. The EC defend the latter, arguing it might even ban more, rather than less imported substances: for even if there is only negligible exposure, that exposure may still be a risk. Opponents suggest that the insertion of a risk approach has sacrified precaution on the altar of science.

A few comments.

Firstly, the report (and potentially even the EC itself) repeats the misleading assertion that the debate concerns either science or precaution. Precaution is NOT unscientific. The very trigger of the precautionary approach is science.

Next, the case is reported at a time a lot of people are getting jittery about the regulatory co-operation mechanisms in free trade agreements such as CETA and TTIP. The meeting and the subsequent EC reaction to our trading partners’ comments, would then represent an example of the ‘freezing effect’ in international trade: with our trading partners flying the flag of WTO incompatibility, the EU would then have caved in to threats of litigation in Geneva. Yet in reality WTO input by fellow WTO Members is at least as old as the WTO itself, indeed it predates it. The 1978 Tokyo Standards Code already obliged the then GATT Contracting Parties to notify their draft standards to the GATT Secretariat. The very point of notification and transparency is that the issues raised are being discussed and may indeed lead to the draft standard being adopted. Changes made to REACH, to name but one example, reflected concerns of fellow WTO Members and REACH can hardly be said to pander to industry’s demands.

However there needs to be one core appreciation in this process: just as notification serves transparency (anyone can consult the TBT notification gateway to review draft measures that have been notified), so too should the process of review after reception of the comments, be conducted in a transparent manner. This clearly has not happened here. By conducting these meetings in private, and by refusing to release the minutes until prompted to do so, EC services have given the impression that there is more than meets the eye. In times where even CETA has not yet been ratified, that is most definitely the wrong approach.

Geert.

 

On 29 and 30 May 2017, the University of Milan will host an international conference under the title Business and Human Rights: International Law Challenges and European Responses. Scholars are encouraged to submit their proposals for papers, not exceeding 600 words, before 31 January 2017, to the following email address: EUlawbusinesshumanrights@unimi.it. More information is available here.

I giorni 29 e 30 maggio 2017, l’Università di Milano ospiterà un convegno dal titolo Business and Human Rights: International Law Challenges and European Responses. Gli interessati sono invitati a trasmettere un paper, che non superi le 600 parole, entro il 31 gennaio 2017, a questo indirizzo email: EUlawbusinesshumanrights@unimi.it. Maggiori informazioni sono disponibili qui.

 

On 10 November 2016, the French MEP Joëlle Bergeron submitted to the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament a draft report regarding the protection of vulnerable adults.

The draft report comes with a set of recommendations to the European Commission. Under the draft, the European Parliament, among other things, ‘deplores the fact that the Commission has failed to act on Parliament’s call that it should submit … a report setting out details of the problems encountered and the best practices noted in connection with the application of the Hague Convention [of 13 January 2000 on the international protection of adults], and ‘calls on the Commission to submit … before 31 March 2018, pursuant to Article 81(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, a proposal for a regulation designed to improve cooperation among the Member States and the automatic recognition and enforcement of decisions on the protection of vulnerable adults and mandates in anticipation of incapacity’.

A document annexed to the draft report lists the ‘principles and aims’ of the proposal that the Parliament expects to receive from the Commission.

In particular, following the suggestions illustrated in a study by the European Parliamentary Service, the regulation should, inter alia, ‘grant any person who is given responsibility for protecting the person or the property of a vulnerable adult the right to obtain within a reasonable period a certificate specifying his or her status and the powers which have been conferred on him or her’, and ‘foster the enforcement in the other Member States of protection measures taken by the authorities of a Member State, without a declaration establishing the enforceability of these measures being required’. The envisaged regulation should also ‘introduce single mandate in anticipation of incapacity forms in order to facilitate the use of such mandates by the persons concerned, and the circulation, recognition and enforcement of mandates’.

In the meanwhile, on 15 December 2016, Latvia signed the Hague Convention of 2000 on the international protection of adults. According to the press release circulated by the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the Convention is anticipated to be ratified by Latvia in 2017.

Il 10 novembre 2016, la deputata europea Joëlle Bergeron ha presentato alla Commissione giuridica del Parlamento europeo un progetto di relazione sulla protezione degli adulti.

Il progetto reca una serie di raccomandazioni rivolte alla Commissione europea. Si dice nel testo, fra le altre cose, che il Parlamento “deplora che la Commissione non abbia dato seguito alla richiesta del Parlamento di presentare a tempo debito … una relazione che identifichi i problemi incontrati e le migliori pratiche per l’attuazione della Convenzione dell’Aia [del 13 gennaio 2000 sulla protezione degli adulti]”, e “chiede alla Commissione di presentare …, anteriormente al 31 marzo 2018, sulla base dell’articolo 81, paragrafo 2, del trattato sul funzionamento dell’Unione europea, una proposta di regolamento volto a rafforzare la cooperazione tra gli Stati membri nonché a migliorare il riconoscimento con pieno diritto e l’esecuzione delle decisioni relative alla protezione degli adulti vulnerabili e dei mandati di inidoneità [sic], secondo le raccomandazioni particolareggiate figuranti in allegato”. La proposta dovrebbe altresì “introdurre moduli unici di mandato di inidoneità al fine di promuovere l’uso di tali mandati da parte delle persone interessate, nonché la circolazione, il riconoscimento e l’attuazione di tali mandati”.

Un documento allegato alla proposta di relazione elenca i “principi” e gli “obiettivi” che dovrebbero caratterizzare la proposta che il Parlamento si attende di ricevere dalla Commissione.

In particolare, conformandosi in larga parte alle indicazioni emerse da uno studio predisposto dal Servizio Ricerca del Parlamento europeo, la proposta di regolamento dovrebbe includere, fra le altre, delle regole volte a “riconoscere a qualsiasi persona che assicura la protezione della persona o dei beni di un adulto vulnerabile il diritto di ottenere dalle autorità competenti, entro un termine ragionevole, un certificato attestante la sua qualità e i poteri che le sono conferiti”, nonché delle regole che favoriscano “l’esecuzione delle misure di protezione adottate dalle autorità di uno Stato membro negli altri Stati membri senza che sia necessaria una dichiarazione [di] esecutiva di tali misure”.

Nel frattempo, il 15 dicembre 2016, la Lettonia ha firmato la Convenzione dell’Aja del 2000 sulla protezione internazionale degli adulti. Stando al comunicato stampa diffuso dal Permanent Bureau della Conferenza dell’Aja di diritto internazionale privato, ci si attende che la Convenzione venga ratificata dalla Lettonia nel corso del 2017.

In JEB Recoveries v Binstock, [2016] EWCA Civ 1008, the Court of Appeal (on appeal from the High Court, 2015] EWHC 1063 (Ch)) exhaustively reviewed relevant EU precedent for the determination of the ‘place of performance’ of a contract under Article 5(1) (now 7(1)) of the Brussels I (Recast) Regulation. Kitchin LJ first of all refuses to deal with the alleged submission to jurisdiction by Mr Binstock. The argument was made that,  by making and pursuing an application for security for costs, Mr Binstock had submitted to the jurisdiction. The issue was however not raised before the High Court and therefore not sub judice at the Court of Appeal.

Mr Binstock (of casino fame) argued that the contracts at issue were not performed in England, for he himself was domiciled in Spain  and the claimant in the case at issue (for most of the relevant contracts, jurisdiction was dismissed at hand) had arguably carried out his contractual arrangements largely from Paris.

Relevant CJEU precedent was C-19/09 Wood Floor Solutions the findings of which Lord Justice Kitchin helpfully summarised as follows:

1. ‘…First, the place of performance must be understood as the place with the closest linking factor between the contract and the court having jurisdiction and, as a general rule, this will be at the place of the main provision of the services.
2. Secondly, the place of the main provision of the services must be deduced, so far as possible, from the provisions of the contract itself.
3. Thirdly, if the provisions of the contract do not enable the place of the main provision of the services to be determined, either because they provide for several places where services are to be provided or because they do not expressly provide for any specific place where services are to be provided, but services have already been provided, it is appropriate, in the alternative, to take account of the place where activities in performance of the contract have for the most part been carried out, provided that the provision of services in that place is not contrary to the parties’ intentions as appears from the contract.
4. Fourthly, if the place of the main provision of the services cannot be determined on the basis of the terms of the contract or its performance, then it must be identified by another means which respects the objectives of predictability and proximity, and this will be the place where the party providing the services is domiciled.’

Based upon the place where the services have for the most part been carried out, the Court of Appeal held that JEB has no good arguable case that the place of the main provision of Mr Wilson’s services was England.

A neat application of Article 7(1) and an improved re-phrasing of the CJEU’s own rules.

Geert.

(Handbook of) EU Private International Law, Chapter 2Heading 2.2.11.1.,

Mondelez UK Holdings & Services / EUIPO - Société des produits Nestlé (Forme d’une tablette de chocolat)
Propriété intellectuelle et industrielle
Selon le Tribunal, l’EUIPO doit réexaminer si la forme tridimensionnelle correspondant au produit « Kit Kat 4 barres » peut être maintenue comme marque de l’Union européenne

Infineon Technologies / Commission
Concurrence ENTR
Le Tribunal de l’UE rejette les recours de Philips et d’Infineon dans le cadre de l’entente sur le marché des puces pour cartes