Flux européens

Kočner / Europol
Principes du droit communautaire
Avocat général Rantos : Europol et un État membre dans lequel s’est produit un dommage en rapport avec un traitement illicite de données peuvent être solidairement responsables

Silver e.a. / Conseil
Citoyenneté européenne
Rejet définitif des recours de citoyens britanniques contestant la perte de leurs droits de citoyens de l’Union en conséquence du Brexit

Thermalhotel Fontana
Sécurité sociale des travailleurs migrants
La libre circulation des travailleurs s’oppose à la réglementation d’un État membre conditionnant une indemnisation à l’imposition d’une mesure de confinement par ses propres autorités administratives

Bank M. (Conséquences de l’annulation du contrat)
Rapprochement des législations
Le droit de l’Union ne s’oppose pas à ce que, en cas d’annulation d’un contrat de prêt hypothécaire entaché de clauses abusives, les consommateurs demandent à la banque une compensation allant au-delà du remboursement des mensualités versées

In Kvist v GippsAero Pty Ltd & Anor [2023] VSC 275, Dixon J refused an application for forum non conveniens in a judgment that is good material for the comparative conflict of laws binder.

On 14 July 2019, at Storsandskar near Umeå in Sweden, a small plane being used for skydiving crashed, resulting in the deaths of the pilot and all eight passengers on board. Claimants are relatives of some of the victims of the crash, and they claim damages from the defendants for negligence. None of the claimants reside in Australia. Apart from 2, who are American, all claimants are Swedish. Defendants are incorporated in Australia and carry on business in Gippsland, Victoria. The first defendant (Gippsareo) manufactured the Airvan GA8-TC 320 in 2012. Second defendant GA8 Airvan holds the ‘Type Certificates’ that certify the Airvan meets the requisite standards for airworthiness. Certificates were issued to the second defendant by the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the European Safety Authority, and the US Federal Aviation Authority in respect of the aircraft.

Gippsaero sold the Airvan to a Swedish company, GCC Capital, a financier, on 17 May 2013. The parent companies of GCC Capital AB were placed in liquidation on 2 December 2021. At the time of the crash, the Airvan was owned by a Swedish company called Skydive Umea AB (a customer of GCC Capital). Skydive Umea AB was placed in liquidation on 5 October 2022. It held, apparently, a policy of insurance in respect of the plane. The Airvan was being used by Umeå Parachute Club from Umeå airport in Sweden. The Umeå Parachute Club is a non-profit association.

An earlier Swedish claim (seemingly wrongly invoking the Montreal Convention) was withdrawn, meaning there are no competing Swedish proceedings afoot. Claimants allege the defendants were negligent in failing to include critical information in an operating manual supplied with the aircraft at the time of purchase and in failing to ensure the aircraft was suitable for parachuting operations. Passengers in the aircraft moving rearwards preparing to skydive altered the weight distribution in the aircraft in a manner that required a critical response from the pilot, a response the pilot did not adequately provide.

[11-12] the Australian proceedings are used to take advantage of common law discovery rules. Preliminary expert evidence indicates an Australian judgment might not be enforceable in Sweden (odd, I find) however could be used for evidentiary purposes in subsequent Swedish proceedings.

[19] ff the factors suggesting forum non are listed. This includes the suggestion that Victoria is a clearly inappropriate forum because the lex loci delicti indicates that the lex causae is Swedish law. This is directly contradicted by claimants [32] ff,  who argue the lex loci delicti is Victoria.

The judge discusses [42] ff, insisting ia [46] that the distinction between the English ‘more appropriate forum’ test [the away forum being a more appropriate forum, GAVC]  and the ‘clearly inappropriate forum’ test applicable in Australia [whether the home, Australian forum is clearly inappropriate, GAVC] is important. [56] ia evidentiary advantages to claimant are listed as kosher for jurisdictional purposes. [78] Swedish ‘advice’ that Swedish law will be the lex causae is dismissed, seemingly for it was utterly incomplete and without much justification. [82] the Airvan was built in Australia and intended for worldwide use. All of the manuals and certifications originated from Australia and have just been adapted where required to ensure registration was permissible in Europe or America, wherever the aircraft might be. [84] The relevant actions of the defendants were antecedent to the sale and to the characteristic of the sale on which the defendants rely for their contentions. The aircraft was designed, the manual was written, and in relevant respects, the fit out of the aircraft was set, well before the sale of the Airvan to Sweden.

[89] The judge concludes that at this point [for the purposes of the forum non analysis, GAVC] he is satisfied that the substantive law of the (Australian) forum is the lex causae.

A good illustration of the role of the likely lex causae in forum non.

Geert.

Claimants allege defendants' negligence in failing to include critical information in operating manual at time of purchase and in failing to ensure the aircraft was suitable for parachuting operations.
Lively lex causae discussions expected at trial. https://t.co/pkRAibZMNd

— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) June 5, 2023

In MF Tel Sarl v Visa Europe Ltd [2023] EWHC 1336 (Ch), Marsh M admirably summarises the extensive authorities both English and CJEU (and almost all of them discussed on this blog) on ‘purely economic damage’, in the case at issue at the applicable law level with a view to identifying overcharging on card transaction services. The claim is non-contractual for claimant operated through a ‘sponsor’, RRS, a London-based bank.

[55] Visa’s primary case is that the direct damage occurred at the time when Visa messaged RRS with transaction amounts that are said to be incorrect. Visa invites the court to follow a line of cases dealing with negligent misstatement. In a case of negligent misrepresentation it is said the damage will occur at the place where the misstatement is received and relied upon (compare the discussion in Kwok v UBS). Visa’s alternative case is that direct damage occurred when RRS failed to collect an Optional Issuer Fee – OIF, as a result of the defendant’s inaccurate messaging, for onward transmission to the claimant in France. [57] On either case the defendant says that damage occurred in England being the “direct” damage resulting from the wrong and that the loss felt ultimately in the claimant’s bank account in France is indirect damage.

the judge [68-5] holds that

where the claim is for the non-receipt of OIFs, the wrong only has a direct economic effect upon the claimant by non-receipt of OIFs. That effect is likely to have been felt by the claimant in France. It is not at all obvious that the effect of the wrong as it resonated in financial terms should be seen as an indirect consequence of the previous events.

The case of course once again shows the intricate difficulty of the (in)direct damage distinction and I agree with Master Marsh  that certainly at the level of an application for strike-out, Visa’s arguments are not convincing to blow the suggestion of French law being the applicable law, out off the water.

Geert.

Failed application to strike out the applicable law part of a claim as being French law
Discussion on applicable law for purely economic damage, A4 Rome II, must go to trial

MF Tel Sarl v Visa Europe Ltd [2023] EWHC 1336 (Ch)https://t.co/AAQRDh4yrM

— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) June 6, 2023

One my of students, Jules Culot, has excellent analysis of the recent Belgium Supreme Court’s turnaround (T BV v S-O GmbH – what is with the anonymisation?!) on Belgium’s rule for dispute resolution in the context of exclusive distribution agreements: see here. I am a great believer in progress via (acknowledged) assimilation and I am happy largely to refer to Jules.

As Jules notes, the Supreme Court has taken a similar approach as the final Court of Appeal ruling in the infamous Unamar case: the granted concessions for exclusive distribution are said primarily to safeguard “private interests” and consequently not to qualify as specific mandatory laws under Article 9(1) Rome I. It is by far certain that for national laws to qualify as lois de police or as the Belgians call it, lois d’application immédiate, they necessarily must safeguard general interests.

With our head librarian, Christoph Malliet, I share the frustration that the appealed judgment of the Antwerp Court of Appeal of 10 March 2021, is not available anywhere – but I shall not start raging about the so 1950s approach to publication of case-law in Belgium: I want to start the week-end later with positive vibes.

Geert.

EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, 3.88.

Great primer by @TheLegalSmeagol on the Belgian Supreme Court reversing half a century of authority on arbitration and exclusive distribution (re: lois de police, overriding mandatory law) https://t.co/ovCCgkG4M7 pic.twitter.com/JgwSkC8fXR

— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) May 26, 2023

Google Ireland e.a.
Liberté d'établissement
Avocat général Szpunar : des plates-formes comme Google, Meta Platforms et Tik Tok ne peuvent se voir imposer des obligations supplémentaires dans un État membre autre que celui de leur siège que par des mesures prises au cas par cas

Commission / Amazon.com e.a.
Aide d'État
Décisions fiscales anticipatives : selon l’avocate générale Kokott, c’est à tort que la Commission a constaté que le Luxembourg avait accordé des aides d’État illégales à Amazon sous forme d’avantages fiscaux

Comune di Copertino
Libre circulation des personnes
Avocate générale Ćapeta : les États membres peuvent limiter la monétisation des jours de congé annuel payé non pris à la fin de la relation de travail

UFC - Que choisir et CLCV
Rapprochement des législations
Voyages à forfait et pandémie de Covid-19 : une réglementation nationale libérant temporairement les organisateurs de leur obligation de remboursement intégral en cas de résiliation n’est pas compatible avec le droit de l’Union

Austrian Airlines (Vol de rapatriement)
Transport
Pandémie de Covid-19 : un vol de rapatriement organisé dans le contexte d’une mesure d’assistance consulaire ne constitue pas un vol de réacheminement que le transporteur aérien effectif doit offrir aux passagers dont le vol a été annulé

Prestige and Limousine
Liberté d'établissement
La limitation du nombre de licences de services de véhicule de tourisme avec chauffeur dans l’agglomération de Barcelone est contraire au droit de l’Union

Aprile et Commerciale Italiana / EUIPO - DC Comics (Représentation d’une chauve-souris dans un cadre ovale)
Propriété intellectuelle et industrielle
Logo de Batman : les preuves présentées au Tribunal ne suffisent pas à démontrer que la marque de l’Union européenne représentant une chauve-souris dans un cadre ovale était dépourvue de caractère distinctif à la date du dépôt de la demande d’enregistrement

Shakutin / Conseil
Relations extérieures
Mesures restrictives à l’encontre de la Biélorussie : le Tribunal rejette le recours introduit par M. Aleksandr Vasilevich Shakutin contre les mesures restrictives qui lui ont été imposées

O. G. (Mandat d’arrêt européen à l’encontre d’un ressortissant d’un État tiers)
Espace de liberté, sécurité et justice
La possibilité d’un refus d’exécution d’un mandat d’arrêt européen pour que la peine soit exécutée dans l’État membre de résidence doit également s’appliquer aux ressortissants de pays tiers

In Athenian Brewery and Heineken v Macedonian Thrace Brewery ECLI:NL:HR:2023:660, the Dutch Supreme Court is likely to refer to the CJEU on the approach to ‘relatedness’ in competition law cases, required to substantiate anchor jurisdiction. It is the Greek authorities that have held that  Heineken’s Greek daughter, in which it held close to 99% of shares, had infringed competition law.

Competition law works with an assumption of attributability of daughter undertakings’ infringements to their mother corporation: see CJEU ENI and recently C-377/20 SEN /AGCM. The SC now should like to ask the CJEU how that assumption relates to Article 8(1) Brussels Ia’s anchor defendant mechanism, which requires claims to be ‘closely related’, whether the case needs to be distinguished from CJEU CDC seeing as it is the Greek, not the EU competition authorities which held the infringement, and what impact the issue has on the assessment required per CJEU Universal Music and Kolassa.

An impending reference of note.

Geert.

EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, Heading 2.2.13.1.

Competition law, jurisdiction
Dutch SC minded to refer to #CJEU on role of EU competition law's presumption of mother corp involvement in daughter's abuse of dominant position, for purposes of A8(1) BIa's anchor defendant mechanism, 'closely connected'https://t.co/Mum1uuMWzT

— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) April 28, 2023

In ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2023:887 (parties names anonymised given the nature of the case; husband and wife have been divorced under civil law since 2018; the ex-husband is domiciled and lives in France; the ex-wife is also domiciled in France yet is habitually resident in Israel) the courts at Amsterdam held upon appeal that the mere rabbinical (Conference of European Rabbis) instruction for a husband to appear before the Amsterdam Beth Din so as to grant get to his wife, does not suffice to make Amsterdam either locus delicti commissi or locus damni.

The French courts have already granted damages to the wife on the basis of the husband’s continued refusal to engage with the Beth Din. Authority referred to viz A7(2) BIa includes CJEU Vereniging van Effectenbezitters, and leads the court to conclude that Amsterdam is not a new locus delicti commissi viz the husband’s continued refusal to engage with the religious courts, but rather a continuation of the same delicti commissi which led to the French allocation of damages [3.11]. [3.12] the wife’s Mozaik reference to CJEU Shevill is not accepted with reference to the possibility under Jewish law of other Beth Dins to have jurisdiction in the case.

On locus damni and per CJEU Universal Music, I understand the reluctance to identify Amsterdam as locus damni given the lack of links between the case and the parties, to The Netherlands. Per CJEU Ofab I would suggest however that a different outcome on locus delicti commissi could have been possible.

Geert.

EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, 2.432 ff.

Interesting judgment Amsterdam
A7(2) Brussels Ia

Rabbinical instruction for husband to appear before Amsterdam Beth Din to grant Get to his wife, does not suffice to make A'dam locus delicti commissi
No locus damni in A'dam, eitherhttps://t.co/hClfbCYVwe #lawandreligion

— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) April 28, 2023

Commission / Pologne (Indépendance et vie privée des juges)
Principes du droit communautaire
État de droit : la réforme de la justice polonaise de décembre 2019 enfreint le droit de l’Union

Prise de fonctions de M. Vittorio Di Bucci, nouveau greffier du Tribunal