Judgment of the General Court Ninth Chamber of 27 April 2022, Group Nivelles/EUIPO – Easy Sanitary Solutions Shower drainage channel, T-327/20

• Date: 27 April 2022
• Year: 2022

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responsible for the quality of the personal data that they provide to Europol and for the legality of

such transfers.

Therefore, even if the information contained in the report is incorrect, Europol cannot be held liable

for any inaccuracies in data supplied by a Member State.

Next, the Court notes that there is no obligation on Europol to obtain prior authorisation from any

court or independent administrative authority before processing any personal data, nor any

obligation to give an individual the opportunity to be heard before such data about him or her is

included in a report. To impose the latter obligation on Europol could undermine the practical effect

of the Europol Regulation and the actions of given police authorities and law enforcement agencies.

Lastly, in relation to the alleged infringement of Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights

of the European Union (‘the Charter’) concerning the respect for private and family life and the

protection of personal data, the Court recalls that Article 52(1) of the Charter, concerning the scope of

the guaranteed rights, means that legislation involving a measure which permits interference with

those rights must lay down clear and precise rules governing the scope and application of the

measure in question and impose minimum safeguards.

The Europol Regulation was drawn up with a view to guaranteeing respect for the right to the

protection of personal data and the right to privacy, whilst also pursuing the objective of effectively

combating forms of serious crime affecting several Member States. Within that context, the EU

legislature laid down clear and precise rules on the scope of the powers devolved to Europol, made

Europol’s actions subject to minimum safeguards in relation to the protection of personal data and

put in place independent, transparent and accountable structures for supervision.

Accordingly, as Mr Veen has not established that Europol had failed to fulfil the obligations imposed

on it, there can be no finding of any infringement of Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter.

7. APPROXIMATION OF LAWS: COMMUNITY DESIGNS

Judgment of the General Court (Ninth Chamber) of 27 April 2022, Group Nivelles/EUIPO –

Easy Sanitary Solutions (Shower drainage channel), T-327/20

Community design – Invalidity proceedings – Registered Community design representing a s hower

drainage channel – Earlier design produced after the filing of the application for a declaration of

invalidity – Article 28(1)(b)(v) of Regulation (EC) No 2245/2002 – Discretion of the Board of Appeal –

Scope – Article 63(2) of Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 – Oral proceedings an d measures of inquiry –

Articles 64 and 65 of Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 – Ground for invalidity – Individual character – Article 6

and Article 25(1)(b) of Regulation No 6/2002 – Identi fication of the earlier desig n – Earlier whole design –

Determination of the features of the contested design – Global comparison

Easy Sanitary Solutions BV is the holder of a Community design representing a shower drainage

channel. I-Drain B VBA, the legal predecessor of the applicant, Group Nivelles NV, lodged an

application for a declaration of invalidity based on the lack of novelty and individual character of that

design. That application for a declaration of invalidity referred only to an earlier international design.

However, in its reply to Easy Sanitary Solutions’ observations, I-Drain submitted extracts from the

Blücher catalogues containing another design, namely a cover plate.