Month: July 2015

The Times of Malta reported today that the European Court of Human Rights ordered Government to property owners in Zabbar for the violation of their rights, since they were not allowed to seek an increase in rent for their property to reflect current market values.

The court ordered the government to pay Carmel Zammit and Doris Attard Cassar €40,000 in respect of pecuniary damage and €10,000, plus any chargeable tax, in respect of costs and expenses. It said that Government did not strike a balance between community interests and the rights of the plaintiffs to enjoy their property.

Read more here, or you can look up the case on the Justice Website.

Peter Citron, of Hogan Lovells, Belgium, has alerted today that on the 9th July the ECJ has endorsed the power of the European Commission to impose large fines on multinational companies operating at various levels of the manufacturing and supply chain. It confirms that, for the purposes of cartel fine calculation, the Commission may take into account non-EEA sales of cartelized inputs if these inputs have been built into finished products and subsequently sold to a third party in the EEA by a vertically integrated company.

This case is a prime example of the extra-territorial jurisdiction exercised by the EU when the effects are felt within EU territory (Effects Doctrine).  You can read the full summary here.