After long, drawn-out negotiations, an agreement was finally signed, on June 28, 2010, granting the US access to the SWIFT database. This agreement between Brussels and Washington is meant to help combat terrorism by making it easier to follow the financial trail left by suspected…
What is the naked truth about security scanners? Full-body scanners, also known as naked scanners, “perv scanners”, or arches have been criticized by civil liberties groups, religious organizations, Interpol and the European Court of Human Rights. These devices are controversial because they see through passengers’…
As football fever sweeps the globe, the EU is hoping to achieve some of its own goals. When the European Commission (“the Commission) met the Commission of the African Union last week , just before the start of the World Cup, President Barroso shared his…
We know that it’s possible to be too friendly, but can a Member State be too consumer-friendly? That was the question posed to the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-484/08: Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid v Asociación…
Two gambling companies lost their claims alleging that they didn’t get a sporting chance to do business in The Netherlands. Ladbrokes and Betfair both challenged the Dutch monopoly on gambling. They lost in the Court of Justice of the European Union, which held that Member…
State aid is more than just statements. Public statements made by French authorities may have helped France Télécom’s (FT) financial standing, but mere words cannot constitute illegal State aid. This was the conclusion of the General Court of the EU in France and Others v…
If your luggage is worth more to you than 1,134.71 euros, you might want to think twice or make special arrangements before checking it in on an European airline. The EU Court of Justice recently confirmed that the liability of European Union air carriers for…
Spanish painter Salvador Dalí died in Spain and established the Spanish State as sole legatee over his intellectual property (IP) rights which are administered by a Spanish foundation and managed by a Spanish society. It seems surreal, then, that French law prevailed over Spanish law…
Does the fundamental right to protection of communications between lawyers and their clients extend to in-house counsel? Not under EU law, says Advocate General Kokott in the case of Akzo Nobel Chemicals Ltd and Akcros Chemical Ltd v European Commission (Case C-550/07 P, delivered on…
When Islandic volcano Eyjafjalla erupted, it caused passengers’ tempers to erupt from the almost total lock-down of European airspace. Some stranded travelers were worried about getting their money back for tickets, food, hotels and phone calls, while others were worried about visa issues. The EU…