Orders nº T-675/18 of Tribunal General de la Unión Europea, September 20, 2019

• Resolution Date: September 20, 2019
• Issuing Organization: Tribunal General de la Unión Europea
• Decision Number: T-675/18

(Removal from the register)

In Case T-675/18,

Trifolio-M GmbH, established in Lahnau (Germany),

Oxon Italia SpA, established in Milan (Italy),

Mitsui AgriScience International, established in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (Belgium),

represented by C. Mereu and S. Englebert, lawyers,

applicants,

v

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), represented by D. Detken and S. Gabbi, acting as Agents, and by S. Raes, lawyer,

defendant,

Application on the basis of Article 263 TFEU seeking the annulment of the decision of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) of 11 September 2018 rejecting the applicants’ application for confidential treatment of certain pieces of information, submitted by the applicants as part of the assessment of the risks of the active substance ‘azadirachtin’ to human and animal health or the environment, in the EFSA Conclusions on that assessment.

1 On 15 March 2018, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approved the conclusions of the peer review of the food risk assessment related to pesticide residues of the active substance azadirachtin (‘the conclusions of the review’).

2 On 16 March 2018, EFSA sent those conclusions to the applicants, together with the peer review report and the addenda to the draft assessment report, setting a time-limit for any requests for confidential treatment.

3 On 11 April 2018, the applicants submitted a request for confidential treatment in respect of the conclusions of the review, the peer review report and Annex 8 to the draft assessment report.

4 In its reply of 17 April 2018, EFSA stated its view that the names of the persons involved in tests on vertebrates should be redacted and that the request for confidential treatment was to be dismissed as to the remainder. It gave the applicants the opportunity to substantiate their request.

5 On 4 June 2018, the applicants put forward other arguments in support of their request for confidential treatment.

6 On 27 June 2018, EFSA sent a draft decision to the applicants and requested them to submit their observations.

7 On 19 July 2018, following the observations submitted by the applicants on 5 July 2018, EFSA adopted a decision by which it agreed to redact the names of the persons involved in the tests on vertebrates and rejected the request for confidential treatment as to the remainder.

8 On 11 September 2018, following the request of 27 July 2018 for review of the decision of 5 July 2018, EFSA adopted a new decision confirming the earlier decision...