Orders nº T-612/19 of Tribunal General de la Unión Europea, March 11, 2020

• Resolution Date: March 11, 2020
• Issuing Organization: Tribunal General de la Unión Europea
• Decision Number: T-612/19

(Application for interim relief - Plant protection products - Non-renewal of approval of the active substance chlorpropham - Application for suspension of operation of a measure - No urgency)

In Case T-612/19 R,

Aceto Agricultural Chemicals Corp. Ltd, established in Chester (United Kingdom), represented by C. Mereu and P. Sellar, lawyers,

applicant,

v

European Commission, represented by F. Castilla Contreras, A. Dawes and I. Naglis, acting as Agents,

defendant,

APPLICATION under Articles 278 and 279 TFEU for suspension of the operation of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/989 of 17 June 2019 concerning the non-renewal of approval of the active substance chlorpropham, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market, and amending the Annex to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011 (OJ 2019 L 160, p. 11),

THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL COURT

makes the following

Order

Background to the dispute, procedure and forms of order sought

1 The applicant, Aceto Agricultural Chemicals Corp. Ltd, is a company established in the United Kingdom. The applicant was a wholly owned subsidiary of Aceto Agricultural Chemicals Corp., a company established in the United States (‘the former parent company’). In the context of a restructuring under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, on 14 April 2019 the former parent company entered into an asset purchase agreement with New Mountain Capital L.P., an investment firm established in the United States (‘the new ultimate parent company’).

2 The applicant’s business consists in the holding of authorisations for plant protection products containing chlorpropham and management of the procedural and regulatory aspects of the marketing activities for plant protection products containing chlorpropham of its parent company.

3 Chlorpropham was originally approved in 2004 in accordance with the procedure for the listing of active substances of plant protection products established by Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market (OJ 1991 L 230, p. 1). It was added to Annex I to Directive 91/414 by Commission Directive 2004/20/EC of 2 March 2004 amending Directive 91/414 to include chlorpropham as an active substance (OJ 2004 L 70, p. 32).

4 With the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414 (OJ 2009 L 309, p. 1), the active substances included in Annex I to Directive 91/414 were deemed to be approved under that regulation and are now listed in Part A of the Annex to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011 of 25 May 2011 implementing Regulation No 1107/2009 as regards the list of approved active substances (OJ 2011 L 153, p. 1).

5 On 24 July 2014, an application was made for the renewal of the approval of chlorpropham, in accordance with Article 1 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 844/2012 of 18 September 2012 setting out the provisions necessary for the implementation of the renewal procedure for active substances, as provided for in Regulation No 1107/2009 (OJ 2012 L 252, p. 26).

6 The rapporteur Member State drew up a renewal assessment report in consultation with the co-rapporteur Member State, and submitted it to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on 29 April 2016.

7 On 18 June 2017, EFSA communicated to the European Commission its conclusions as to whether chlorpropham was capable of satisfying the approval criteria set out in Article 4 of Regulation No 1107/2009.

8 On 9 January 2018, the Commission presented a draft proposal for the non-renewal of the approval of chlorpropham. The applicant and the second applicant in the main action, UPL Europe Ltd, made their observations in a series of exchanges with the Commission.

9 On 17 June 2019, the Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/989 concerning the non-renewal of approval of the active substance chlorpropham, in accordance with Regulation No 1107/2009, and amending the Annex to Implementing Regulation No 540/2011 (OJ 2019 L 160, p. 11, ‘the contested regulation’).

10 As provided by Article 1 of the contested regulation, the approval of the active substance chlorpropham is not renewed. In accordance with Article 3 of the contested regulation, Member States must withdraw authorisations for plant protection products containing chlorpropham by 8 January 2020. Article 4 of that regulation provides that any grace period granted by Member States in accordance with Article 46 of Regulation No 1107/2009 is to expire by 8 October 2020 at the latest. Article 5 of the contested regulation sets the date of the entry into force of the regulation as the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

11 By application lodged at the General Court Registry on 10 September 2019, the applicant and UPL Europe requested the Court to annul the contested regulation.

12 By a separate document, lodged at the Court Registry on 25 October 2019, the applicant made the present application for interim measures, in which it claims that the President of the General Court should:

- suspend operation of the contested regulation pursuant to Article 156 and Article 157(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the General Court pending the Court’s ruling in the main action;

- suspend the expiry date provided for in Articles 4 and 5 of the contested regulation;

- grant any interim measures he may consider appropriate and hold a hearing if deemed necessary;

- order the Commission to pay the costs.

13 In its observations on the application for interim measures, lodged at the Court Registry on 18 November 2019, the Commission...