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CJEU C‑442/14 / Judgment

Bayer CropScience SA‐NV and Stichting De Bijenstichting v. College voor de toelating van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en biociden
Policy area
Environment
Deciding body type
Court of Justice of the European Union
Deciding body
Court (Fifth Chamber)
Type
Decision
Decision date
23/11/2016
ECLI (European case law identifier)
ECLI:EU:C:2016:890

Cairt um Chearta Bunúsacha an Aontais Eorpaigh

Title II: Freedoms

Article 16 - Freedom to conduct a business

Title II: Freedoms

Article 17 - Right to property

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  • CJEU C‑442/14 / Judgment

    Key facts of the case:

    (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Environment — Aarhus Convention — Directive 2003/4/EC — Article 4(2) — Public access to information — Concept of ‘information relating to emissions into the environment’ — Directive 91/414/EEC — Directive 98/8/EC — Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 — Placing of plant protection products and biocides on the market — Confidentiality — Protection of industrial and commercial interests)

    Results (sanctions) and key consequences of the case:

    On those grounds, the Court (Fifth Chamber) hereby rules:

    1. Article 4(2) of Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC must be interpreted as meaning that the fact that the applicant for authorisation to place a plant protection product or biocide on the market, did not, during the procedure for obtaining that authorisation, request that information submitted under that procedure be treated as confidential on the basis of Article 14 of Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market, Article 19 of Directive 98/8/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market or Article 33(4) and Article 63 of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC does not preclude the competent authority, which has received, following the closure of that procedure, a request for access to the information submitted on the basis of Directive 2003/4 by a third party, from examining the applicant’s objection to that request for access and refusing it, if necessary, pursuant to point (d) of the first subparagraph of Article 4(2) of that directive on the ground that the disclosure of that information would adversely affect the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information.
    2. The second subparagraph of Article 4(2) of Directive 2003/4 must be interpreted as follows: – ‘emissions into the environment’ within the meaning of that provision covers the release into the environment of products or substances such as plant protection products or biocides and substances contained in those products, to the extent that that release is actual or foreseeable under normal or realistic conditions of use; – ‘information on emissions into the environment’ within the meaning of that provision covers information concerning the nature, composition, quantity, date and place of the ‘emissions into the environment’ of those products or substances, and data concerning the medium to long-term consequences of those emissions on the environment, in particular information relating to residues in the environment following application of the product in question and studies on the measurement of the substance’s drift during that application, whether the data comes from studies performed entirely or in part in the field, or from laboratory or translocation studies.
    3. CJEU - The second subparagraph of Article 4(2) of Directive 2003/4 must be interpreted as meaning, in the event of a request for access to information on emissions into the environment whose disclosure would adversely affect one of the interests referred to in points (a), (d), and (f) to (h) of the first subparagraph of Article 4(2) of that directive, that only relevant data which may be extracted from the source of information concerning emissions into the environment must be disclosed where it is possible to separate those data from the other information contained in that source, which is for the referring court to assess.
  • Paragraphs referring to EU Charter (original language)
    1. Moreover, it must be stressed that, contrary to what, in essence, Bayer and the German Government claim, such an interpretation of the second subparagraph of Article 4(2) of Directive 2003/4 does not disregard either Articles 16 and 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’) as regards freedom to conduct a business and the right to property, or Article 39(3) of the TRIPS Agreement which ensures the confidentiality of undisclosed data submitted by an applicant for authorisation to place pharmaceutical or chemical products on the market. Nor does it deprive of its effectiveness Article 63 of Regulation No 1107/2009 which, in paragraph 2 thereof, lists data normally deemed to undermine, inter alia, the protection of commercial interests and in respect of such information, any person may, pursuant to paragraph 1 of that article, request that it is to be treated as confidential.
    2. As regards, first, Articles 16 and 17 of the Charter and Article 39(3) of the TRIPS Agreement, it should be noted that, in accordance with Article 52(1) of the Charter, rights guaranteed under the Charter may be subject to certain limitations, as long as they are provided for by law, respect the essence of those rights and freedoms, are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of general interest recognised by the European Union. Furthermore, Article 39(3) of the TRIPS Agreement allows disclosure of data submitted by an applicant for authorisation to place a pharmaceutical or chemical product on the market where necessary to protect the public.
    3. In the context of weighing the rights ensured by Articles 16 and 17 of the Charter and Article 39(3) of the TRIPS Agreement, on the one hand, against the objectives of environmental protection and of the widest possible disclosure of environmental information, on the other hand, the EU legislature, in accordance with its discretion, considered that it was necessary, to ensure that those objectives were met, to provide that a request for access concerning ‘information on emissions into the environment’ could not, in the light of the relevance and importance of that information in terms of environmental protection, be refused on the ground that its disclosure would adversely affect the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information.
    4. In that regard, the interpretation of ‘information on emissions into the environment’ set out in paragraph 96 of the present judgment does not in any way mean that all data contained in dossiers for authorisation to place plant protection products or biocides on the market, in particular, all data from studies carried out in order to obtain that authorisation, are covered by that concept and must always be disclosed. Only data relating to ‘emissions into the environment’ are covered by that concept, which excludes, inter alia, not only information which does not concern emissions from the product in question into the environment, but also, as is apparent from paragraphs 77 to 80 of the present judgment, information which relates to hypothetical emissions, that is to say emissions which are not actual or foreseeable from the product or substance in question under representative circumstances of normal or realistic conditions of use. That interpretation does not therefore lead to disproportionate undermining of protection of the rights ensured by Articles 16 and 17 of the Charter and by Article 39(3) of the TRIPS Agreement.