The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights meaning

Antitrust AG issues opinion recommending competition authorities should not need prior approval to seize emails in announced inspections Advocate General Medina has delivered his opinion in Joined Cases C- 258/23 Imagens Médicas Integradas, C- 259/23 Synlabhealth II and C- 260/23 SIBS - Sociedade Gestora de Participações Sociais and Others, following a Portuguese reference. The referring court asked whether, among other points, Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU bars the seizure, in Article 101 TFEU investigations, of business material contained in e-mail exchanges between an undertaking’s managers and employees. Article 7 confirms everyone’s right to respect for private and family life, the home and communications. Proceedings brought before a Portuguese court alleged this right was violated when officials took employees’ work e-mails during inspections at company premises. It was further argued that the searches and seizures had not received approval from the relevant judicial authority. In his antitrust opinion, the Advocate General recommends that competition authorities should not be obliged to obtain prior authorisation to...

Mergers The Commission received notifications under the simplified procedure for: Multiply/CVC/PAI/Tendam (M.11943); Frasers/XXL (M.11874); Equitix/Baltic Cable/Greenlink (M.11971); and APG/MGETS/SkyNRG (M.12019). It also published the public version of its Kingspan/NWG (M.11309) decision—see further, decision. NOTE—For all live merger investigations, see further, EU mergers—ongoing cases tracker. Antitrust The Court of Justice held a hearing in Joined Cases C‑258/23 Imagens Médicas Integradas, C‑259/23 Synlabhealth II, and C‑260/23 SIBS – Sociedade Gestora de Participações Sociais and Others, Portuguese references asking whether, among other matters, Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU precludes seizure of business records derived from e‑mail between managers and employees during an Article 101 TFEU investigation—see further, application (C‑258/23), application (C‑259/23), and application (C‑260/23). The General Court heard Case T‑219/23 Bategu Gummitechnologie v Commission, seeking annulment of the Commission’s rejection of a complaint in Case AT.40492—see further, application. NOTE—For live national references and antitrust appeals, see further, the respective ongoing cases trackers....

Alchaster , Case C‑202/24 What are the practical implications of this case? The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice has delivered a ruling that matters for EU extradition practitioners handling requests from the UK across the EU. The Court made entirely plain its stance on the degree of mutual trust to be extended to the UK: despite 47 years of shared integration, the UK sits outside the Union legal order and, as a result, the relationship is not as exceptional as, for example, Norway. Provisions in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) concerning duties to uphold fundamental rights and legal principles in the ECHR and the Charter (Article 524(2), TCA), and the guarantees provided when executing an arrest warrant (Article 604, TCA), ultimately do not alter that position at all. Member State courts must conduct an independent assessment of any such arrest warrant before executing it, even if an ECHR incompatibility has been discounted. What was the background? A District Judge of the magistrates’ court...

CASE HUB ARCHIVED This archived case hub records the state of play as at the judgment of 25 February 2021 and is no longer updated. For further details, see the timeline. Case facts Outline Case C‑857/19, Slovak Telekom-a reference from Slovakia seeking guidance on whether, amongst other issues, Article 50 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU also covers administrative infringements consisting of abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 TFEU, where the Commission and a Member State authority have, independently and separately, imposed penalties in exercising their powers under Article 11(6) of Regulation 1/2003. Latest developments On 25 February 2021, the Court of Justice delivered its ruling, finding, inter alia, that Slovak Telekom-already held by the Commission to have abused a dominant position in relation to certain telecommunications services-could likewise be penalised by the Slovak competition authority for the same type of abuse affecting other telecommunications services. Parties Applicant: Slovak Telekom (ST) Respondent: Protimonopolný úrad Slovenskej...

ARCHIVED: This archived Practice Note considers the position in relation to retained EU law (REUL) in the employment field to 31 December 2023. After that date, the position altered substantially when key elements of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL(RR)A 2023) took effect on 1 January 2024. For further guidance, see Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 below, and Practice Note: Retained EU law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023—impact on employment law. Before exit day (31 January 2020), EU law operated in the UK via the European Communities Act 1972 (ECA 1972). On exit day, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EU(W)A 2018) repealed ECA 1972, subject to savings introduced by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (EU(WA)A 2020), to give effect to the transition/implementation period. Broadly, to ensure legal continuity, the EU(W)A 2018 (as amended) was designed to preserve the legal position immediately before the end of that period on 31 December 2020 (IP completion day). It did this by taking...

Undertakings engaged in competition matters, including merger investigations, before the European Commission (the Commission) benefit from rights of defence that safeguard their interests throughout the process. Respect for these rights by the Commission is a core tenet of EU law and has been reinforced by the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, which makes the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR) legally binding and provides for the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Together, these instruments strengthen the legal framework within which the Commission must act. Rights of defence in Commission antitrust proceedings Several procedural measures adopted by the Commission during antitrust proceedings may have a lasting adverse impact on undertakings’ rights of defence. In view of this, Regulation 1/2003 aims at striking an appropriate balance between: (i) the effective enforcement of EU antitrust rules and (ii) the respect of undertakings’ rights of defence. These rights of defence for undertakings encompass, in particular: the privilege against self-incrimination ...