Order — ECLI:EU:T:2018:803
Date: 2018-11-14
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Seventh Chamber
Subject matter: Provisions governing the Institutions
Procedure: Action for damages - unfounded;Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: Belgium

Order of the General Court (Seventh Chamber) of 14 November 2018 – Spinoit v Commission and Others (Case T‑711/17) (Action for annulment and damages — Measure adopted by the Head of Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Algeria in the context of a public service contract — Decision requesting the replacement of the applicant as an expert — Termination of the agreement between the contracting company and the applicant further to that decision — No capacity as a defendant — Act not open to challenge — No sufficiently serious breach of a rule of law conferring rights on individuals — Causal link — Action manifestly inadmissible in part and manifestly lacking any foundation in law in part) 1. Action for annulment — Capacity to be a defendant — Union delegation — Not a body, office or agency of the EU — Measures adopted by the head of an EU delegation in the context of a tendering procedure — Measures attributable to the Commission (Arts 221 TFEU and 263 TFEU; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 966/2012; Council Decision 2010/427) (see paras 28, 29) 2. Action for annulment — Action relating in reality to a contractual dispute — Annulment of a measure which is part of a purely contractual context — No jurisdiction of the EU judicature — Inadmissibility (Arts 263 TFEU, 272 TFEU, 274 TFEU et 288 TFEU) (see paras 31-36) 3. Non-contractual liability — Conditions — Unlawfulness — Injury — Causal link — One of the conditions not satisfied — Claim for compensation dismissed in its entirety (Art. 340, second para. TFEU) (see paras 51-54) 4. EU law — Principles — Principle of sound administration — Scope — Applicability to contractual relations linking the Union with third parties — Not included (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 41) (see paras 57, 58) 5. Non-contractual liability — Conditions — Causal link — Burden of proof (Art. 340, second para. TFEU) (see para. 67) 6. Non-contractual liability — Conditions — Unlawfulness — Insufficient reasoning in a Union act — Not included (Art. 340, second para. TFEU) (see para. 69) Re: Action, first, under Article 263 TFEU for annulment of the letter of 3 August 2017 requesting the replacement of the applicant as an expert in the context of a public services contract and, second, under Article 268 TFEU for compensation for the harm that the applicant claims to have suffered further to that decision. Operative part 1. The action is dismissed. 2. Mr Bernard Spinoit shall pay the costs.