Case C-588/21 P: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 5 March 2024 – Public.Resource.Org Inc., Right to Know CLG v European Commission and Others (Appeal – Access to documents of the institutions of the European Union – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Article 4(2) – Exceptions – Refusal to grant access to a document whose disclosure would undermine the protection of commercial interests of a natural or legal person, including intellectual property – Overriding public interest in disclosure – Harmonised standards adopted by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) – Protection deriving from copyright – Principle of the rule of law – Principle of transparency – Principle of openness – Principle of good governance)
Date: 2024-03-05
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Committee for Standardisation, European standard, access to EU information, copyright, environmental standard, harmonisation of standards








C_202402900EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2024/2900


6.5.2024






Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 5 March 2024 – Public.Resource.Org Inc., Right to Know CLG v European Commission and Others


(Case C-588/21 P)
                (1)

(Appeal - Access to documents of the institutions of the European Union - Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Article 4(2) - Exceptions - Refusal to grant access to a document whose disclosure would undermine the protection of commercial interests of a natural or legal person, including intellectual property - Overriding public interest in disclosure - Harmonised standards adopted by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) - Protection deriving from copyright - Principle of the rule of law - Principle of transparency - Principle of openness - Principle of good governance)
(C/2024/2900)
Language of the case: English

Parties


Appellants: Public.Resource.Org Inc., Right to Know CLG (represented by: J. Hackl, C. Nüßing, Rechtsanwälte, and F. Logue, Solicitor)

Other parties to the proceedings: European Commission (represented by: S. Delaude, G. Gattinara and F. Thiran, acting as Agents), European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), Asociación Española de Normalización (UNE), Asociația de Standardizare din România (ASRO), Association française de normalisation (AFNOR), Austrian Standards International (ASI), British Standards Institution (BSI), Bureau de normalisation/Bureau voor Normalisatie (NBN), Dansk Standard (DS), Deutsches Institut für Normung eV (DIN), Koninklijk Nederlands Normalisatie Instituut (NEN), Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung SNV, Standard Norge (SN), Suomen Standardisoimisliitto ry (SFS), Svenska institutet för standarder (SIS), Institut za standardizaciju Srbije (ISS) (represented by: K. Dingemann, M. Kottmann and K. Reiter, Rechtsanwälte)

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:








1.


Sets aside the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 14 July 2021, Public.Resource.Org and Right to Know v Commission (T-185/19, EU:T:2021:445);












2.


Annuls Commission Decision C(2019) 639 final of 22 January 2019;












3.


Orders the European Commission to pay the costs relating to both the proceedings before the General Court of the European Union and the appeal proceedings;












4.


Orders the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the Asociación Española de Normalización (UNE), the Asociația de Standardizare din România (ASRO), the Association française de normalisation (AFNOR), Austrian Standards International (ASI), the British Standards Institution (BSI), the Bureau de normalisation/Bureau voor Normalisatie (NBN), Dansk Standard (DS), the Deutsches Institut für Normung eV (DIN), the Koninklijk Nederlands Normalisatie Instituut (NEN), the Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung (SNV), Standard Norge (SN), the Suomen Standardisoimisliitto ry (SFS), the Svenska institutet för standarder (SIS) and the Institut za standardizaciju Srbije (ISS) to bear their own costs both in connection with the proceedings at first instance and the appeal proceedings.






(1)  
            OJ C 11, 10.1.2022.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/2900/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)