New actions before the European courts

This section of the newsletter looks at some of the key cases introduced before the European Court of Justice and the European General Court and recently reported in the Official Journal of the European Union¹.

ECHA registration fees - SME status

A new action has been brought against ECHA and the EU Commission, as published in the Official Journal on 5 October 2013 (Case T-392/13, La Ferla -v- Commission and ECHA), challenging the legality and the correct application by ECHA of the substantive criteria for the determination of SME status allowing registrants to benefit from lower registration fees. The applicants also challenge the legality of the ECHA Management Board Decisions MB/21/2012/D and MB/D/29/2010 setting the amount of the administrative charges for incorrect classification. A number of similar actions are pending (see our April 2013 newsletter)

Please click on the links below for the other articles in the 4 November 2013 Life sciences and regulatory newsletter:

• EU General Court ruling may open the door to far-reaching public access to protected regulatory data
• No Supplementary Protection certification (SPC) possible for "emergency" plant protection product authorisations, EU Court of Justice says
• EU Court of Justice blurs the lines: a product can be a medical device and a medicinal product

_Note:

_{1Undertakings with an interest in direct actions can request permission to intervene before the court within six weeks of the Official Journal publication. There is no possibility for intervention in the case of requests for preliminary rulings.}