Blogpot 56/2023 ‘Eco-friendly’ and ‘climate-neutral’ have become beloved phrases when it comes to marketing and labelling of everyday products. Apparently to such an extent that companies have decided to include such stickers on the packaging of their products, without actually doing, i.e. contributing anything towards the fight against climate change. This ‘eco-frenzy’ has gone so far that inherently environmentally unsustainable products and services are marketed as ‘eco-friendly’, such as airline flights or plastic bags. The European legislator has finally responded and proposed the so-call ..read more

Blogpost 47/2023 ‘An “emulsified high fat offal tube” on account of it not containing enough meat’ were the words of the Rt. Hon. James Hacker in the 1980s British sitcom Yes, Minister to describe a sausage, when complaining about EU regulations on food labelling. These days, one might replace ‘enough’ with ‘any’. Giving the situation a modern twist, the French and Italian Governments have introduced legislation on banning names of meat products from a number of products, which are in fact plant-based meat substitutes. And all of this in the name of consumer protection and cultural heritage. T ..read more

Blogpost 24/2023 Disclaimer: The author represents the interests of companies having suffered damages in the “Dieselgate” case. He thanks Ms Amélia Guglielmi for her research work and Prof. Maria José Azar-Baud for her valuable comments. On 30 March 2023, Advocate General (“AG”) Campos Sánchez-Bordona delivered his Opinion in C-27/22 Volkswagen Group Italia and Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft. This Opinion addresses the application of the ne bis in idem principle in the case of the diesel emissions scandal, better known as “Dieselgate“. According to the ne bis in idem principle, a fundamental pr ..read more

A decade after one of the most high-profile cases on the extraterritorial reach of EU law concerning the inclusion of global aviation emissions in the EU emissions trading system (‘ETS’) (Case C-366/10 Air Transport Association of America ‘ATAA’), the ECJ’s judgment in Case C-561/20 brought to light its lasting significance and its extension to a different aspect of air transport concerning passenger rights. It also reaffirmed the CJEU’s key role as a transnational actor when reviewing the geographic scope of secondary legislation. The CJEU has consistently extended EU regulation through two t ..read more

On 10 June 2021, the Court of Justice decided in Case C-65/20 Krone that inaccurate health advice included in a printed newspaper copy does not constitute a ‘defective product’ within the meaning of the Directive 85/374/EEC on product liability. While the outcome is not entirely surprising in light of Advocate General Hogan’s Opinion and most prior scholarship on the matter, as discussed below, the decision offers an important extra demarcation of the European product liability regime. Moreover, it is worthwhile to examine in this blogpost what this decision might mean for the debate on whethe ..read more