Case T-718/25: Action brought on 16 October 2025 – Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij v Commission
Date: 2025-10-16
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: carbon neutrality, clean technology, equal treatment, gas industry, industrial pollution, oil industry, principle of proportionality








C_202506641EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/6641


22.12.2025






Action brought on 16 October 2025 – Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij v Commission


(Case T-718/25)

(C/2025/6641)
Language of the case: English

Parties


Applicant: Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV (Assen, Netherlands) (represented by: M. De Backer, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:






—


annul the Contested decision pursuant to Article 263 TFEU;










—


declare Article 23 NZIA inapplicable pursuant to Article 277 TFEU;










—


annul the Contested Delegated Regulation pursuant to Article 263 TFEU or declare it inapplicable pursuant to Article 277 TFEU; and










—


order the defendant to pay the applicant’s costs pursuant to Article 134 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Court, including the costs of any intervening parties.





Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, seeking, on the one hand, the annulment of Commission Decision (EU) 2025/1479 of 22 May 2025 specifying the pro rata contributions to the Union CO2 injection capacity objective by 2030 from entities holding an authorisation as defined in Article 1, point 3, of Directive 94/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (‘Contested Decision’) and of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1477 of 21 May 2025 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1735 of the European Parliament and of the Council by specifying the rules on the identification of authorised oil and gas producers who are required to contribute to the objective of reaching the Union target for available CO2 injection capacity by 2030, on the calculation of their respective contributions, and on their reporting obligations (‘Contested Delegated Regulation’) and, on the other hand, a declaration of inapplicability of Article 23 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1735 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 on establishing a framework of measures for strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology manufacturing ecosystem (‘NZIA’), the applicant relies on five pleas in law.






1.


First plea in law, alleging infringement of essential procedural requirements because the Commission did not discharge its duty under Article 23(3) NZIA to consult all interested parties, including the Applicant, on the reports submitted by the Member States.










2.


Second plea in law, alleging infringement of Union law by misapplication of Article 23(2) NZIA:






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for the calculation of the Applicant’s contribution requirement because not all gas production by the Applicant was covered by an authorisation as defined per Article 23(1) NZIA during the relevant period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023; and










—


the methodology to calculate the individual contribution requirements per Article 23(2) NZIA, as supplemented in Article 4 of the Contested Delegated Regulation, is insufficiently robust to ensure that the individual contribution requirements are calculated on reliable data.














3.


Third plea in law, alleging infringement of the principle of proportionality because:






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the impact of the NZIA contribution requirements has not been assessed to the required standard; and










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the requirements impose unfeasible obligations by 2030.














4.


Fourth plea in law, alleging infringement of the principle of equality because the Article 23 NZIA contribution requirements impact only a limited number of companies discounting others in similar situations and failing to account for differentiating circumstances, and are based on an arbitrary reference period to calculate the individual contribution requirements.










5.


Fifth plea in law, alleging infringement of the freedom to conduct a business because the Article 23 NZIA contribution requirements unduly interfere with the business activities of the applicant.






ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/6641/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)