The European Court of Justice ruled that the freezing of funds and economic resources prevents the implementation of measures that establish a right to be paid on a priority basis in favor of a certain creditor in relation to others, because those measures alter the destination of the frozen funds, potentially allowing their use. The decision came in response to a preliminary ruling from the French Court of Cassation on questions arising from the case Bank Sepah v. Overseas Financial Ltd. and Oaktree Finance Ltd. The case dealt with creditors' ability to enforce action against assets frozen under the EU's Iran sanctions regime, the EU Sanctions blog reported Nov. 15. The French court asked the ECJ whether EU sanctions prevent a "non-earmarking" judicial lien from being imposed over frozen assets without a license and whether it is relevant that the debt is unrelated to the Iranian ballistic missile program and came about before the bank's United Nations sanctions designation. On the latter question, the ECJ said that "the fact that the grounds for the claim for recovery from the person whose funds are frozen are unrelated to the Iranian ballistic missile programme is not relevant to that question," EU Sanctions said.

The European Union General Court on Nov. 10 rejected Syrian businessman Waseem Alkattan's application to be dropped from the EU's Syria sanctions list, according to an unofficial translation of a judgment. The EU in two actions maintained Alkattan's listing under the Syria sanctions regime. The court said the European Council properly established that Alkattan is an influential businessman in Syria, thus warranting his placement on the list. The council cited Alkattan's business interests in real estate, luxury hotels and shopping malls and his associations with the Syrian regime, the court said.

The trial involving Danish fuel supply Dan-Bunkering and its parent company Bunker Holding kicked off on Oct. 26, EU Sanctions reported. Denmark in 2019 charged Dan-Bunkering with violating the European Union's Syrian sanctions regime by selling jet fuel to Syria. Between 2015 and 2017, around 172,000 tons of jet fuel were allegedly sold to Russian companies and shipped to Syria using intermediaries, EU Sanctions said.

Exports from the European Union have been lifted by "effective implementation and enforcement of EU trade agreements and international trade rules," the European Commission said Oct. 27, touting over $6.3 billion in additions to EU exports since 2020. The number derives from the commission's first report on implementation and enforcement of its trade agreements that covers four areas: "(1) Making full use of the opportunities provided by EU trade agreements; (2) Supporting the uptake of trade agreements by small businesses; (3) Addressing trade barriers; (4) Enforcing trade commitments through dispute settlement."

The European Union General Court dismissed a case brought by Russian steel company Novolipetsk Steel, holding in an Oct. 20 order that antidumping duties don't discriminate against goods that are subject to existing safeguard measures. Novolipetsk challenged the commission's antidumping duties on hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel and cold-rolled flat steel products from Russia. The commission had also established safeguard measures that applied tariff quotas for 26 categories of steel products, including the HRF and CRF goods.

Former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying called for a China-wide boycott of global law firm Mayer Brown, after the firm dropped its representation of the University of Hong Kong after the latter removed a Tiananmen Square massacre sculpture from its campus. In a Facebook post in response to questions from the Financial Times, Leung asserted that the firm bowed to international pressure and abandoned its client. Mayer Brown halted its representation Oct. 15, following an outcry that included a letter from 28 international groups pushing for the relationship to cease. The Pillar of Shame was created in memory of those killed by the Chinese army during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests against the government. It has stood on the campus since 1997.

The European Union appointed two judges to the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Council said. Krisztian Kecsmar of Hungary and Ion Galea of Romania were named following the resignations of Zoltan Csehi and Octavia Spineanu-Matei. The new judges' appointments are through Aug. 31, 2022.

Singapore national Tang Yong Hoe, sole director of freight forwarding company I-Do Logistics, was fined $105,000 (in Singapore dollars) by the State Courts for evading Goods and Services Taxes and submitting false customs information, Singapore Customs said Oct. 4. In 2018, Singapore Customs inspected a container imported by I-Do and found discrepancies in the packing lists and I-Do's submitted values for goods belonging to two consignees. One consignee, Zhang Feng, received the packing list from I-Do and knowingly submitted the false information, the customs agency said. Zhang was fined $2,000. In total, Tang was found to have evaded over $16,000 in GST, leading to his fine exceeding $100,000. “Any person who is in any way concerned in any fraudulent evasion of, or attempt to fraudulently evade, any customs duty or excise duty shall be guilty of an offence and will be liable on conviction to a fine of up to 20 times the amount of duty and GST evaded,” Singapore Customs said.

The European Commission appointed four individuals to its panel of independent experts to help the commission pick candidates to serve as adjudicators under the dispute settlement mechanisms in European Union trade and investment agreements, the commission said. The four are Bruno Simma, judge at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague; Inge Govaere, professor of EU Law at Ghent University; Jan Klabbers, professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki; and Pavel Sturma, professor of international law at Charles University.

The European Union General Court dismissed Maher Al-Imam's application to drop his sanctions listing from the EU's Syria sanctions regime, in a Sept. 22 ruling, according to an unofficial translation. Al-Imam challenged the European Council's assessment of the facts that the applicant was an influential businessman in Syria with connections to the Syrian regime. The court ruled that the council properly made this finding and that Al-Imam is an influential businessman in Syria. The court also held that the applicant's right to an effective judicial remedy was not violated and that the restrictions on the applicant's rights are justified given the human rights situation in Syria.