E.ON Czech Holding AG v Michael Dĕdouch and Others.
Date: 2018-03-07
25


According to the settled case-law of the Court, the provisions of Regulation No 44/2001 must be interpreted independently, by reference to its scheme and purpose (judgments of 13 July 2006, Reisch Montage, C‑103/05, EU:C:2006:471, paragraph 29; of 2 October 2008, Hassett and Doherty, C‑372/07, EU:C:2008:534, paragraph 17; and of 16 January 2014, Kainz, C‑45/13, EU:C:2014:7, paragraph 19).
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As regards the general scheme and context of Regulation No 44/2001, it should be recalled that the jurisdiction provided for in Article 2 of that regulation, namely that the courts of the Member State in which the defendant is domiciled are to have jurisdiction, constitutes the general rule. It is only by way of derogation from that general rule that the regulation provides for special and exclusive rules of jurisdiction for cases, which are exhaustively listed, in which the defendant may or must, depending on the case, be sued in the courts of another Member State (judgments of 13 July 2006, Reisch Montage, C‑103/05, EU:C:2006:471, paragraph 22, and of 12 May 2011, BVG, C‑144/10, EU:C:2011:300, paragraph 30).
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Those rules of special and exclusive jurisdiction must accordingly be interpreted strictly. As the provisions of Article 22 of Regulation No 44/2001 introduce an exception to the general rule governing the attribution of jurisdiction, they must not be given an interpretation broader than that which is required by their objective (judgments of 2 October 2008, Hassett and Doherty, C‑372/07, EU:C:2008:534, paragraphs 18 and 19, and of 12 May 2011, BVG, C‑144/10, EU:C:2011:300, paragraph 30).
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As regards the objectives and the purpose of Regulation No 44/2001, it should be recalled that, as is apparent from recitals 2 and 11 thereof, that regulation seeks to unify the rules on conflict of jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters by way of rules of jurisdiction which are highly predictable. That regulation thus pursues an objective of legal certainty which consists in strengthening the legal protection of persons established in the European Union, by enabling the applicant easily to identify the court in which he may sue and the defendant reasonably to foresee before which court he may be sued (judgments of 23 April 2009, Falco Privatstiftung and Rabitsch, C‑533/07, EU:C:2009:257, paragraphs 21 and 22; of 17 March 2016, Taser International, C‑175/15, EU:C:2016:176, paragraph 32; and of 14 July 2016, Granarolo, C‑196/15, EU:C:2016:559, paragraph 16).
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In particular, the rules of exclusive jurisdiction laid down in Article 22 of Regulation No 44/2001 seek to ensure that jurisdiction rests with courts closely linked to the proceedings in fact and law (see, with regard to Article 16 of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (OJ 1972 L 299, p. 32), the provisions of which are essentially identical to those of Article 22 of Regulation No 44/2001, judgment of 13 July 2006, GAT, C‑4/03, EU:C:2006:457, paragraph 21), in other words, to confer exclusive jurisdiction on the courts of a Member State in specific circumstances where, having regard to the matter at issue, those courts are best placed to adjudicate upon the disputes falling to them by reason of a particularly close link between those disputes and that Member State (judgment of 12 May 2011, BVG, C‑144/10, EU:C:2011:300, paragraph 36).
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Thus, the essential objective pursued by Article 22(2) of Regulation No 44/2001 is that of centralising jurisdiction in order to avoid conflicting judgments being given as regards the existence of a company or as regards the validity of the decisions of its organs (judgment of 2 October 2008, Hassett and Doherty, C‑372/07, EU:C:2008:534, paragraph 20).
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The courts of the Member State in which the company has its seat appear to be those best placed to deal with such disputes, inter alia because it is in that State that information about the company will have been notified and made public. Exclusive jurisdiction is thus attributed to those courts in the interests of the sound administration of justice (judgment of 2 October 2008, Hassett and Doherty, C‑372/07, EU:C:2008:534, paragraph 21).
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However, the Court has held that it cannot be inferred from this that, in order for Article 22(2) of Regulation No 44/2001 to apply, it is sufficient that a legal action involve some link with a decision adopted by an organ of a company (judgment of 2 October 2008, Hassett and Doherty, C‑372/07, EU:C:2008:534, paragraph 22), and that the scope of that provision covers only disputes in which a party is challenging the validity of a decision of an organ of a company under the company law applicable or the provisions of its article of association governing the functioning of its organs (judgments of 2 October 2008, Hassett and Doherty, C‑372/07, EU:C:2008:534, paragraph 26, and of 23 October 2014, flyLAL-Lithuanian Airlines, C‑302/13, EU:C:2014:2319, paragraph 40).