Amendments to the Practice Directions to Parties

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Having regard to Article 150 of its Rules of Procedure;

Having regard to the Practice Directions to Parties adopted on 5 July 2007;

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING AMENDMENTS TO THE PRACTICE DIRECTIONS TO PARTIES:

Article 1

1. At point 9, the words "The first page of" shall be inserted before the words "each copy", and the word "signed" shall be replaced by the word "initialled".

2. The following indent and text shall be added to point 10 before the penultimate indent:

- "— 15 pages for the reply and the rejoinder in appeal cases and in intellectual property cases;".

3. The following sentence shall be added at the end of point 15:

"In addition, the pleas in law put forward should ideally each be given a heading to enable them to be identified easily."

4. The following sentence shall be added at the end of point 19:

"It must be produced separately from the documents annexed in support of the action and must also be sent by email, as an ordinary electronic file, to CFI.Registry@curia.europa.eu, indicating the case to which it relates."

5. Point 36(e) shall be replaced by the following:

"(e) a reference to the date of receipt by the appellant of the decision of the Civil Service Tribunal;"

6. The following sentence shall be added at the end of point 41:

"It must be produced separately from the documents annexed in support of the appeal and must also be sent by email, as an ordinary electronic file, to CFI.Registry@curia.europa.eu, indicating the case to which it relates."

7. Point 44(c) shall be replaced by the following:

"(c) the date of receipt of the appeal by that party;"

8. At point 51(a), the following words shall be added after the word "annex": "(by reference to the pleading to which the documents are annexed, using a letter and a number: for example, Annex A.1, A.2, … for annexes to the application; B.1, B.2, … for annexes to the defence; C.1, C.2, … for annexes to the reply; D.1, D.2, … for annexes to the rejoinder)" and the final paragraph of point 51 shall be deleted.

9. At point 52, the words "The pages of documents annexed to a pleading must be numbered" shall be replaced by the words "The documents annexed to a pleading must be paginated", and the words "page numbering" shall be replaced by the word "pagination".

10. The following shall be added at the end of point 73:

"An application for confidential treatment may not be lodged as a confidential version."

11. At point 81, the words "2 to 3 pages" shall be replaced by the words "2 pages".

12. New sections "L. Applications for leave to lodge a reply or rejoinder in intellectual property cases" and "M. Applications for hearing of oral argument in intellectual property cases" shall be inserted after point 83. Section "L. Applications for legal aid" shall become Section "N. Applications for legal aid".

Points 84 to 87 shall be replaced by the following:

"L. Applications for leave to lodge a reply or rejoinder in intellectual property cases

84. Under Article 135(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the President may, on application within the period prescribed by that provision, allow a reply or a rejoinder to be submitted if it is necessary in order to enable the party concerned to put forward his point of view.

85. Save in exceptional circumstances, such an application must not exceed 2 pages and must be confined to summarising the precise reasons for which, in the opinion of the party concerned, a reply or a rejoinder is necessary. The request must be intelligible in itself, without necessitating reference to the main pleadings.

M. Applications for hearing of oral argument in intellectual property cases

86. The Court may decide to rule on the action without an oral procedure, unless one of the parties submits an application to be heard within the period prescribed under Article 135a of the Rules of Procedure.

87. The application must set out the reasons for which the party wishes to be heard. That reasoning must be based on a real assessment of the benefit of a hearing to the party in question and must indicate the elements of the file or arguments which that party considers it necessary to develop or disprove more fully at a hearing. It is not sufficient to provide a general statement of reasons referring to the importance of the case or of the questions to be decided."

The numbering of subsequent points shall be adjusted accordingly.

13. At point 91, now point 95, the reference to point 85 shall be replaced by a reference to point 89.

14. At point 100, now point 104, the words "(in joined cases, each of the main parties will be allowed 15 minutes for each case and each intervener will be allowed 10 minutes for each case)" shall be inserted after the words "10 minutes".

15. At point 102, now point 106, the following sentence shall be added at the end of the first paragraph:

"However, in intellectual property cases, the Report for the Hearing is confined to setting out the pleas in law and a succinct summary of the parties' arguments."

Article 2

These amendments to the Practice Directions to Parties shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

They shall enter into force on the day following their publication.

Done at Luxembourg, 16 June 2009.

E. Coulon

Registrar

M. Jaeger

President

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