Damen Shipyards Group, the Netherlands' largest shipbuilder, filed a lawsuit against the Dutch government for losses sustained due to the sanctions on Russia, a company spokesperson told us. Bloomberg first reported this week that the company filed suit at the Court of Rotterdam in May. The case is expected to proceed next year.
The European Commission appointed Miranda de Meijer of the Netherlands to be a new prosecutor in the European Public Prosecutor's Office. De Meijer is a former public prosecutor and criminal lawyer, most recently serving as a senior advocate-general at the Netherlands' Public Prosecution Service. Her term as a European prosecutor will run for six years beginning Nov. 1 and is nonrenewable. The European Public Prosecutor's Office investigates and prosecutes crimes pertaining to the EU's financial interests, including fraud, corruption and major cross-border value-added tax fraud.
The EU General Court on Sept. 20 rejected Russian businessman Alexey Mordashov's application to annul his sanctions listing, according to an unofficial translation. The court said the EU didn't err in finding that Mordashov is an influential businessman in sectors of the Russian government, rejecting his challenges to the process, reasoning and proportionality.
The European Council appointed two new judges to the EU General Court: Saulius Lukas Kaleda, who will serve until Aug. 31, 2025, and Louise Spangsberg Gronfeldt, for a term ending Aug. 31, 2028. Gronfeldt replaces Sten Frimodt Nielsen, who resigned, while Kaleda's appointment was made "as part of the partial renewal of the composition of the General Court in 2019," the Council announced Sept. 15.
The EU General Court's Grand Chamber on Sept. 13 rejected the Venezuelan government's challenge of the EU's Venezuela sanctions regime. The court said the European Council "relied on credible and reliable information" to assess the situation in Venezuela, which included "brutal repression" by the government. The court also said Venezuelan reports showing its government prosecuted these human rights abuses weren't enough to reveal a "manifest error" in the council's decision. The sanctions regime itself didn't violate international law, the court added, nor was it an illegal countermeasure because the sanctions weren't meant to be a reaction to an "internationally wrongful act imputable" to the Venezuelan government.
The EU General Court this week upheld one application for delisting under the Russia sanctions regime and rejected six others. The court removed former Ozon CEO Aleksandr Shulgin from the sanctions list, saying his relisting was not justified. The court said that given Shulgin had resigned his post and the European Council had not looked in why listing was still proper, he was not properly sanctioned, according to an unofficial translation.
New Zealand became the 17th member country to formally accept the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Fisheries and Subsidies, the WTO announced. The deal would impose rules to crack down on subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. New Zealand's announcement means nearly 40% of member states have ratified the deal, which requires acceptance by two-thirds of WTO members to enter into force.
The EU General Court on Sept. 6 upheld the European Council's sanctions listing of Belarusian businessman Mikail Gutseriev, finding that the European Council correctly interpreted the listing criteria to include nonfinancial types of support for the Belarus regime. Gutseriev, sanctioned in 2021, argued that the listing criteria under the Belarus sanctions regime should include only financial support, given its language saying parties shall be listed due to their "benefit from or support for" the Belarus government.
China recently passed a law permitting Chinese courts to hear lawsuits against foreign governments, ending the nation's policy of absolute state immunity. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said that the law "affirms the fundamental principle that a foreign State and its property enjoy immunity in China," while noting that certain exceptions now exist for disputes involving "a commercial activity, relevant personal injury and property damage." The spokesperson said the law complies with international legal rules.
Canada is choosing to call for a binational panel to determine whether the countervailing duty order on its softwood lumber exports is fair, but is challenging the antidumping order at the Court of International Trade.