The Council of the EU on June 12 imposed tariffs on agricultural products and fertilizers from Russia and Belarus that weren't subject to the additional customs duties thus far imposed on related products. The council said the goal is to "reduce EU dependence on those imports" and "reduce Russian export revenues" in a bid to limit Russia's ability to fund its war against Ukraine.
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The Council of the EU on June 11 appointed one judge to the Court of Justice and seven judges to the General Court. Slovenia's Marko Bosnjak was named to the Court of Justice to replace Marko Ilesic, who passed away, for the remainder of Ilesic's term, which ends Oct. 6, 2027. The council also appointed Italy's Raffaella Pezzuto to a first term on the General Court and renewed the appointments of six other judges: Germany's Johannes Laitenberger and Gabriele Steinfatt, Lithuania's Danute Jociene, Slovenia's Maja Brkan and Damjan Kukovec, and Sweden's Jorgen Hettne. The General Court terms will run from Sept. 1, 2025, to Aug. 31, 2031.
The Council of the European Union on May 22 adopted a decision on the conclusion of the U.N. "Mauritius" Convention on transparency for Investor-State Dispute Settlement. The council said the decision "will bring greater public access to documents and hearings" and include civil society in disputes brought by investors against EU states. The convention applies the U.N. Commission of International Trade Law's transparency rules to investment treaties signed before April 1, 2014, requiring public access to all documents, open hearings and third-party participation.
The U.K. Supreme Court ruled that a forced labor case against vacuum manufacturer Dyson can proceed in the U.K. in a win for the migrant workers who are suing the company over labor conditions in two Malaysian factories in its supply chains.
The U.K. issued a new version of a Russia-related legal services general license to reset the cap on fees that can be paid to British law firms by parties subject to Russia-related sanctions. The legal fees cap is set at about $2.68 million (or 2 million pounds) per law firm and the expenses cap at 10% of the legal fees, up to about $268,000 (or 200,000 pounds), for the duration of the license. The license takes effect April 29 and expires Oct. 28. The previous license expired April 28 (see 2410290017).
The U.K. Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation released a threat assessment about possible sanctions violations by legal services providers, noting that since February 2022, the legal services sector has accounted for the second-highest number of suspected breach report submissions to OFSI. Legal services accounts for 16% of all submissions, behind first-place financial services with 65% of submissions.
The Council of the EU on March 26 appointed 13 judges to the EU General Court. Two of the judges, Francesco Bestagno of Italy and Tanja Pavelin of Croatia, have been appointed to their first terms, while nine others saw their terms renewed.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation fined the Russian subsidiary of British law firm Herbert Smith Freehills about $600,000 for violating U.K. sanctions on Russia. The firm was penalized for six payments it made worth over $5 million to sanctioned Russian banks Alfa-Bank JSC, PJSC Sovcombank and PJSC Sberbank.
The EU General Court last week rejected Russian oligarch Alexander Ponomarenko's application to annul his sanctions listing after he argued the European Council violated his procedural rights, committed "manifest errors of assessment" and violated principles of fundamental law.
The EU General Court on Feb. 26 rejected the sanctions delisting application of Aleksandra Melnichenko, wife of sanctioned Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko.