Case T-239/25: Action brought on 13 April 2025 – Belfort International v Parliament and Council
Date: 2025-04-13
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: equal treatment, fruit, legal basis, market approval, non-durable goods, packaging product, plastics, principle of proportionality, vegetable








C_202503304EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/3304


24.6.2025






Action brought on 13 April 2025 – Belfort International v Parliament and Council


(Case T-239/25)

(C/2025/3304)
Language of the case: German

Parties


Applicant: Belfort International BV (Heusden-Zolder, Belgium) (represented by: R. van der Hout, V. Lemonnier, C. Wagner and S. Walter, lawyers)

Defendants: European Parliament and Council of the European Union

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:






—


annul the PPWR (1) in its entirety;










—


in the alternative, annul Article 25 of the PPWR, and Annex V thereto;










—


in the alternative, annul Article 25(1) of the PPWR, in conjunction with Annex V No 2 thereto, in so far as the placing on the market of the packaging formats referred to therein will be prohibited for the listed uses, and










—


order the defendants to pay the costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on the following four pleas in law.






1.


The legislature relied on an incorrect legal basis for the PPWR, and in particular Article 25(1) thereof, in conjunction with Annex V thereto, in that it relied on the legal basis for the internal market (Article 114 TFEU) instead of the legal basis for environmental policy (Article 192 TFEU), even though the regulation, and in particular Article 25(1) of the PPWR, clearly focuses on environmental policy.










2.


Article 25(1) of the PPWR, in conjunction with Annex V thereto, infringes the principle of equal treatment, in that suppliers (like the applicant) and manufacturers (like the applicant’s customers) of single-use plastic packaging covered by those provisions are disadvantaged compared to manufacturers and suppliers that use packaging made from other materials for the uses concerned.










3.


Article 25(1) of the PPWR, in conjunction with Annex V thereto, infringes the obligation to state reasons under the second paragraph of Article 296 TFEU, since the PPWR and the legislative documents contain no statement of reasons for those derogations, even though that is of paramount importance and contrary to the regulatory objectives of the PPWR.










4.


Article 25(1) of the PPWR, in conjunction with Annex V thereto, infringes the principle of proportionality, in that the placing on the market of certain single-use plastic packaging will be prohibited, although that is not appropriate for achieving the objective pursued by that provision.






(1)  Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of the Euroopean Union and of the Council of 19 December 2024 on packaging and packaging waste, amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and Directive (EU) 2019/904, and repealing Directive 94/62/EG (OJ L, 2025/40) (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation; ‘the PPWR’).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/3304/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)