Amendments to the Practice Directions to parties

THE GENERAL COURT

Having regard to Article 150 of its Rules of Procedure;

Having regard to the Practice Directions to Parties adopted on 5 July 2007, as amended on 16 June 2009;

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

Article 1

1. Throughout these Practice Directions, the names "Court of First Instance of the European Communities" and "Court of First Instance" shall be replaced by "General Court".

2. In the third recital in the preamble to the Practice Directions, the words "(OJ L 232, 4.9.2007 p. 1) ("the Instructions to the Registrar") require the Registrar to ensure that documents placed on a case-file comply with the provisions of the Statute of the Court of Justice," shall be replaced by "(OJ 2007 L 232, p. 1), as amended on 17 May 2010 (see page 53 of this Official Journal) ("the Instructions to the Registrar"), require the Registrar to ensure that documents placed on a case-file comply with the provisions of the Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union ("the Statute")," and the words "of the Court of Justice" after the word "Statute" shall be deleted.

3. At point 1, second indent, the address "CFI.Registry@curia.europa.eu" shall be replaced by: "GeneralCourt.Registry@curia.europa.eu".

4. Point 8 shall be amended as follows:

- the words "In order to permit the use of such technology, the following requirements should" shall be replaced by "Accordingly, the following requirements must";

- under (a), the words "the paper must be white, unlined and A4 size, with the text appearing" shall be replaced by "the text, in A4 format, must be easily legible and appear";

- under (b), the words "pages of pleadings and annexes, if any, must be placed together" shall be replaced by "documents produced must be placed together";

- under (c), the words "(such as Times New Roman, Courier or Arial), in at least 12 pt in the body of the text and at least 10 pt in the footnotes, with one-and-a-half line spacing and upper, lower, left and right margins of at least 2,5 cm;" shall be replaced by "with sufficient line spacing and margins to ensure that a scanned version will be legible;".

5. The words "(other than in intellectual property cases)" shall be added to the title of part D.1.1. "Application and defence".

6. Point 19 shall be amended as follows:

- in the first sentence, the words ", which will be prepared by the Registry" shall be deleted;

- the second sentence shall be replaced by:

"Since the notice is required to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in all the official languages, it is requested that the summary should not exceed two pages and that it should be prepared in accordance with the model available on line on the Internet site of the Court of Justice of the European Union.";

- in the third sentence, the address "CFI.Registry@curia.europa.eu" shall be replaced by: "GeneralCourt.Registry@curia.europa.eu".

7. Point 41 shall be amended as follows:

- in the first sentence, the words "in the Official Journal" shall be deleted;

- the second sentence shall be replaced by:

"Since the notice is required to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in all the official languages, it is requested that the summary should not exceed two pages and that it should be prepared in accordance with the model available on line on the Internet site of the Court of Justice of the European Union.";

- in the third sentence, the address "CFI.Registry@curia.europa.eu" shall be replaced by: "GeneralCourt.Registry@curia.europa.eu".

8. At point 42, the words "a Community institution" shall be replaced by "an institution of the Union".

9. At point 49, the words "a Community institution" shall be replaced by "an institution of the Union".

10. At point 55(e), the words "of the Court of Justice" shall be deleted.

11. At point 56(a), the words "and addresses of the parties to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal" shall be replaced by "of the parties to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal and the addresses which they had given for the purposes of the notifications to be effected in the course of those proceedings".

12. Point 57 shall be amended as follows:

- under (a), the words "of the Court of Justice" shall be deleted;

- under (h), the words "a short description of each document (point 51(b) of the Practice Directions) and" shall be added after the word "with".

13. At point 58(c), the words "other than in intellectual property cases, a" shall be inserted at the beginning of the phrase.

14. Points 73, second paragraph, to 79, including titles, shall be replaced by the following:

"74. An application for confidential treatment shall be made by a separate document. It may not be lodged as a confidential version.

75. Such an application must specify the party in relation to whom confidentiality is requested. It must be limited to what is strictly necessary and may not in any event cover the entirety of a pleading and may only exceptionally extend to the entirety of an annexed document. It should usually be feasible to furnish a non-confidential version of a document in which passages, words or figures have been deleted without harming the interests sought to be protected.

76. An application must accurately identify the particulars or passages to be excluded and very briefly state the reasons for which each of those particulars or passages is regarded as secret or confidential. Failure to provide such information may result in the application being rejected by the Court.

77. The application must be accompanied by a non-confidential version of each pleading or document concerned with the confidential material deleted.

Applications for leave to intervene

78. Where an application is made for leave to intervene in a case, the parties are requested to state, within the period prescribed by the Registrar to that effect, whether they wish to seek confidential treatment in respect of certain information included in the documents already placed on the case-file.

With regard to all documents that the parties may lodge subsequently, the parties must specify, in accordance with points 74 to 77 above, the information for which confidential treatment is sought, and provide, in addition to the full version of the documents lodged, a version from which the information in question has been removed. In the absence of such indication, the documents lodged will be furnished to the intervener.

Joined cases

79. Where it is envisaged that several cases will be joined, the parties are requested to state, within the period prescribed by the Registrar to that effect, whether they wish to seek confidential treatment in respect of certain information included in the documents already placed on the case-files.

With regard to all documents that the parties may lodge subsequently, the parties must specify, in accordance with points 74 to 77 above, the information for which confidential treatment is sought, and provide, in addition to the full version of the documents lodged, a version from which the information in question has been removed. In the absence of such indication, the documents lodged will be made available to the other parties."

15. Point 88 shall be amended as follows:

- in the first paragraph, the words "of the European Union" shall be added after "Court of Justice";

- in the second paragraph, the address "CFI.Registry@curia.europa.eu" shall be replaced by: "GeneralCourt.Registry@curia.europa.eu", and the words "of the European Union" shall be added, in the address, after the words "Registry of the General Court".

16. The second paragraph of point 106 shall be numbered point 107.

17. The following point shall be inserted after point 107, now point 108:

"109. The Report for the Hearing shall be made available to the public outside the courtroom on the day of the hearing."

18. Points 108 to 112 shall be renumbered points 110 to 114, respectively.

19. (Does not apply to the English version.)

20. (Does not apply to the English version.)

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, 17 May 2010.

E. Coulon

Registrar

M. Jaeger

President

--------------------------------------------------