ORDER OF THE COURT (Ninth Chamber)

14 December 2017 ( )

(Taxation of costs)

In Case C‑309/15 P‑DEP

APPLICATION for taxation of recoverable costs under Article 145 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, brought on 2 August 2017,

MIP Metro Group Intellectual Property GmbH & Co. KG, established in Düsseldorf (Germany), represented by J.-C. Plate, Rechtsanwalt,

applicant,

v

Real Express SRL, established in Bucharest (Romania), represented by C. Anitoae, avocată,

defendant,

THE COURT (Ninth Chamber),

composed of C. Vajda, President of the Chamber, E. Juhász (Rapporteur) and K. Jürimäe, Judges,

Advocate General: M. Wathelet,

Registrar: A. Calot Escobar,

after hearing the Advocate General,

makes the following

Order

1 The present case concerns the taxation of costs incurred by MIP Metro Group Intellectual Property GmbH & Co. KG (‘MIP’) in Case C‑309/15 P.

2 By its appeal brought on 18 June 2015, under Article 56 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Real Express SRL sought to have set aside the order of the General Court of the European Union of 21 April 2015, Real Express v OHIM — MIP Metro (real) (T‑580/13, not published, EU:T:2015:245), by which the General Court dismissed the action brought against the decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) of 16 September 2013 (Case R 1519/2012-4) relating to opposition proceedings between Real Express and MIP.

3 By order of 8 September 2016, Real Express v EUIPO (C‑309/15 P, not published, EU:C:2016:671), the Court dismissed that appeal and ordered Real Express to pay MIP’s costs.

4 As no agreement was reached between Real Express and MIP on the amount of recoverable costs relating to those proceedings, MIP filed the present application.

Arguments of the parties

5 MIP states that it asked Real Express, unsuccessfully, to pay the costs of the appeal proceedings.

6 It therefore asks the Court to set the amount of recoverable costs at EUR 2 749.32 and to provide it with an authenticated copy of the order which it seeks to have adopted for the purposes of enforcement.

7 According to MIP, the time spent on the examination of Real Express’s appeal exceeded the time which would normally have been spent on it on account of the confusing nature of the arguments put forward in that appeal. This required its lawyer to devote more than nine hours to the analysis of the file, billed in a total amount of EUR 2 709.32, to which postal and communication expenses had to be added, amounting to EUR 40.

8 Real Express did not submit any comments.

Findings of the Court

9 It should be recalled that according to Article 144(b) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court, applicable to appeal proceedings pursuant to Article 184(1) of those rules, ‘expenses necessarily incurred by the parties for the purpose of the proceedings, in particular ... the remuneration of ... lawyers’ are to be regarded as recoverable costs.

10 In the absence of provisions of EU law laying down fee scales, the Court must make an unfettered assessment of the facts of the case, taking into account the purpose and nature of the proceedings, their significance from the point of view of EU law, the difficulties presented by the case, the amount of work generated by the case for the agents or counsel involved and the economic interests which the parties had in the proceedings (order of 30 January 2014, Editions Odile Jacob v Commission and Lagardère, C‑553/10 P‑DEP, EU:C:2014:56, paragraph 24 and the case-law cited).

11 In light of the foregoing, the total amount of costs claimed by MIP must be regarded as justified.

12 It is therefore appropriate to set the amount of recoverable costs at EUR 2 749.32.

On those grounds, the Court (Ninth Chamber) hereby orders:

The total amount of recoverable costs that Real Express SRL must pay MIP Metro Group Intellectual Property GmbH & Co. KG in Case C‑309/15 P is set at EUR 2 749.32.





Luxembourg, 14 December 2017.





A. Calot Escobar C. Vajda