Bendrojo Teismo teisminės veiklos statistika - 2024

See detailed statistics for the General Court

Statistics of the General Court for 2024

By Vittorio Di Bucci, Registrar of the General Court

1. A year of historic changes

Every year the judicial statistics provide valuable insights into the activity of the General Court and prove to be an essential tool for understanding the present and preparing for the future. This contribution is primarily intended to pick out the most salient aspects of those statistics, to provide keys to understanding them and to outline certain trends. However, in the case of 2024, the focus must be the fundamental changes to the functions of the General Court and in the cases brought before it.

2024 marks a turning point in the history of the General Court and of the judicial system of the European Union, which has undergone the most significant reform since the establishment of the General Court in 1989. Since 1 October 2024, the General Court has had jurisdiction to hear and determine preliminary ruling cases in six specific areas. It thus received the first requests from national courts and tribunals which the Court of Justice transmitted to it pursuant to the new provisions in the Statute and the Rules of Procedure and which cover areas such as VAT, excise duties, customs law and the rights of passengers. Those developments affect the very nature of the General Court, which now, together with the Court of Justice, is party to the dialogue with the national courts and tribunals and therefore contributes to ensuring EU law is applied correctly in the Member States.

At the same time, the General Court remains the court which monitors, at first instance, the activities of the institutions and bodies of the European Union. That role has in fact been strengthened by the reform, which has expanded the areas in which appeals against decisions of the General Court are subject to a mechanism to determine whether such appeals are allowed to proceed before the Court of Justice and restricted to those cases which raise significant issues for the unity, consistency or development of EU law. As for litigation based on arbitration clauses or actions brought against decisions of the independent boards of appeal of bodies, offices or agencies, such as the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators or the supervisory authorities in financial matters, the General Court will most often be the court of last instance.

Beyond what the statistics are able to show, substantial amendments to the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union and to the Rules of Procedure of the General Court, the recast of the Practice rules for the implementation of those Rules of Procedure, the changes made to structures, working arrangements and IT tools and the need for staff training placed considerable pressure on the activities of the General Court and its Registry in 2024.

The structure of the annual statistics has been altered to reflect the new jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings, even though only 19 requests from 12 different Member States were lodged in the final three months of 2024 and transmitted to the General Court. It is interesting to note that eight of those references for a preliminary ruling came from the supreme courts of seven different Member States. It is, however, too early to draw any reliable conclusions as to the respective significance of the requests received in the various areas falling within the General Court’s jurisdiction or to provide any insights into how the General Court handles preliminary ruling cases.

2024 also saw the departure of five Judges from the General Court, who were appointed Members of the Court of Justice, and the arrival of two new Judges. The General Court, its Registry and its services had to make substantial efforts to close in a timely manner many cases in which those five Judges who joined the Court of Justice in October 2024 were sitting.

2. Cases brought: a likely temporary fall

The first figure which leaps out is that the number of cases brought fell slightly below the 800 mark and, at 786 new cases, is the lowest figure recorded in the past 10 years. It is highly likely that this is a largely temporary development that can be explained, in particular, by the reduced activity of the other institutions in a year shaped by the European elections and the renewal of the Commission.

There might, however, be an alternative explanation for certain trends.

In the case of litigation relating to intellectual property rights, a slight drop in the number of cases brought was recorded (268 compared with 310 in 2023), even though the Boards of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) closed more proceedings than in the previous year. The downward trend in such litigation before the General Court gathered strength because the number of appeals brought before the Boards of Appeal of EUIPO fell (-6%) and the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms before EUIPO was encouraged.

There was a marked decline in cases in the field of economic and monetary policy, an area which includes inter alia banking law, especially as regards cases brought against the Single Resolution Board. This can be explained by the fact that from 2024, that is, after the end of the initial eight-year period from 1 January 2016, the Single Resolution Board has ceased collecting ex ante contributions from the institutions liable to pay into the Single Resolution Fund, which used to be the main source of litigation. The 14 actions brought in 2024 concern the re-adoption of the decision on the 2021 ex ante contributions to the Single Resolution Fund and should be compared with the 48 cases regarding the 2023 contributions.

As for litigation concerning the regulation of digital markets and services, six cases were brought in relation to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on digital services (‘the Digital Services Act’ or ‘DSA’) concerning designation as a ‘very large online platform’ or the amount of the supervisory fee, and there were two cases relating to Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 on digital markets (‘the Digital Markets Act’ or ‘DMA’) concerning decisions designating ‘gatekeepers’. To date, an insufficient number of cases relating to the Commission’s implementation of the substantive obligations to which such economic operators are subject has been brought before the General Court. Such cases could well be a source of litigation in the years ahead.

Litigation relating to restrictive measures remained stable at 63 cases, exactly the same number as in 2023. Like in 2023, the vast majority of the new cases in this area (47 of the 63) concerns the series of restrictive measures adopted by the European Union in respect of natural or legal persons in the context of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In many pending cases concerning such restrictive measures, the applicants have modified their application pursuant to Article 86 of the Rules of Procedure to contest the extension or the amendment of the measures relating to them, rather than challenging those decisions by means of a new action. This approach has the advantage that several measures involving the same party are subject to scrutiny in the context of one single case, thereby meeting the objectives of clarity, speed and legal certainty with which the General Court had been tasked when the approach was introduced in 2016. However, particularly in the case of those measures which expire after six months, this placed a burden on ongoing proceedings and made managing those proceedings more complicated, especially if the application was modified in the immediate run-up to the hearing or during it. To overcome such difficulties, the General Court amended its Rules of Procedure for those cases in which the period for bringing an action began after 1 September 2024. Under the amended provisions, the modified application must be submitted shortly after service of the General Court’s decision to open the oral part of the procedure or, in principle, even before the service of the decision to proceed to judgment without an oral part. It is, admittedly, too early to take stock of the situation, but those new rules appear to allow the applicants’ interest in focussing their applications within the context of one case to be better reconciled with the General Court’s need to organise its work in a predictable manner and to close proceedings within reasonable timeframes.

In the traditional areas of litigation before the General Court, civil service cases remained stable (78 cases compared with 82 in 2023). In the field of State aid, the number of cases rose from 10 in 2023 to 23 in 2024, whilst staying well below historic levels. Lastly, as in 2022 and 2023, there were very few competition cases, with 10 new cases being brought in 2024.

3. Figures reflecting the activity of the General Court

With 922 cases closed in the course of the year, the General Court has further improved on the previous year and improved markedly on the average in recent years. It has also managed to reduce the number of pending cases considerably: the number of closed cases exceeded that of new cases by 136 and the number of pending cases stands at 1 302 (if the group of 404 essentially identical cases brought in 2023 are counted as a single case, as the gross figure is 1 705 cases). This is the lowest number since 2015. This progress can be explained in part by the closure of certain large groups of cases.

Some points to note:

20,2% of cases were disposed of by extended five-judge formations, which is by far the highest percentage in the General Court’s history. This is the result of an increasing trend over recent years of cases raising significant or novel issues or issues liable to trigger developments in case-law being entrusted to extended formations, which was made possible by the increase in the number of Judges. Extended formations primarily deliver judgments (163 in 2024), but it is also possible for them to make orders (23 in 2024, 10 in 2023);
75,4% of cases were closed by three-judge formations compared with 79% in 2023. This can be explained in particular by the increased frequency of referrals to extended formations;
nine cases were closed by the General Court sitting as the Grand Chamber (compared with just one in 2023 and 2022 and none in 2021 and 2020), further demonstrating the trend of favouring larger formations; following the reform of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the General Court can now also rule as a nine-judge Intermediate Chamber, but that formation has not yet been activated;
four cases were decided by a single judge (nine cases in 2023), confirming the highly exceptional nature of such devolution;
the number of applications for interim relief remained stable at a high level (42 in 2024 compared with 41 in 2023), as did the number of closed interim relief proceedings (42 in 2024 compared with 40 in 2023);
62% of the cases closed in 2024 were closed by judgment and 38% by order (in 2023, the respective percentages were 59% and 41%). 64.5% of the cases closed by judgment were closed with a hearing (66% in 2023);
in December 2024, the General Court closed its first preliminary ruling procedure by adopting an order for removal from the Register following the withdrawal of the request for a preliminary ruling by the national court.

The number of hearings held in 2024 fell back to 232 (286 hearings in 2023, 241 in 2022) for 300 cases pleaded (419 in 2023 and 303 in 2022).

Two hearings with videoconference were held in the course of the year, for the first time since the entry into force on 1 April 2023 of the new rules on the use of this arrangement.

The average duration of proceedings increased very slightly in 2024, standing at 18.5 months for cases closed by judgment or by order (compared with 18.2 in 2023) and 22.1 months (compared with 21 in 2023) if only cases closed by judgment are taken into account. In that regard, it should be noted that the average duration of proceedings in the latter category ranges between an average of 42.6 months for competition law cases or 37.2 months for State aid cases and 13.5 months for intellectual property cases. The closure of several old cases and old, complex groups of cases, in particular in the fields of State aid, competition and banking law, has contributed to the increased average duration of proceedings. That trend is expected to ease and the average duration of proceedings should therefore fall in the next few years, as the General Court has closed or is currently closing the last big groups of past cases.

Of the 1 705 cases pending before the General Court as of 31 December 2024 (that is the gross figure, including the 404 identical actions brought in 2023), 32% concern institutional law (the 404 abovementioned cases fall within this field), almost 10% relate to economic and monetary policy, 7% concern State aid and 5% restrictive measures. As regards the General Court’s areas of specialisation, intellectual property cases account for 19% of pending cases and staff cases represent 6.5% of them, figures which have remained stable compared to the previous year. As for the formations of the General Court, it may be noted that use of the Grand Chamber increased, with two cases pending before that formation at the end of 2024, one about access to documents and the other concerning the review of non-legislative acts containing provisions which may run counter to environmental law.

4. Highlights of 2024 and outlook

In 2024, the General Court devoted considerable efforts to finalising and implementing the reform of the judicial system of the European Union, initiated by the request for reform of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union submitted by the Court of Justice in November 2022. The Regulation amending the Statute was adopted on 11 April 2024 and entered into force on 1 September 2024. On 10 July 2024, the General Court adopted, in agreement with the Court of Justice and following the approval of the Council, fundamental amendments to its Rules of Procedure, which also entered into force on 1 September 2024 and are intended in particular to enable the General Court to exercise its new jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings from October 2024. The Practice rules for the implementation of the Rules of Procedure were recast, whilst other provisions concerning, inter alia, the use of e-Curia were amended. The General Court established a designated Chamber for handling requests for a preliminary ruling, which is expected to remain in place until the partial replacement of the General Court scheduled for September 2025, to be replaced by two Chambers with jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings. It elected three judges (two titular and one alternate) to perform the duties of Advocates General in connection with the handling of requests for a preliminary ruling. The General Court also amended the rules concerning the composition of the Grand Chamber and introduced rules for the composition of the Intermediate Chamber, composed of nine Judges, which is established by the amendment of the Statute.

The General Court continued its policy of proactive case management and successfully implemented the new measures adopted in 2023 for the processing of very large cases and large groups of cases as soon as they are registered. Such cases are assigned to Chambers and Judge-Rapporteurs in accordance with specific criteria, follow an indicative timetable (subject to revision as the proceedings progress) and may benefit from greater resources and priority treatment by the team of readers of judgments (cellule des lecteurs d’arrêts) and the translation services. It was decided that the judges involved in handling references for a preliminary ruling are never to be appointed as Rapporteurs for very large cases or groups of cases, because this would be incompatible with the priority given to the rapid management of requests for a preliminary ruling, in accordance with the assurances given to the legislature at the time of the reform.

The General Court and its Registry have continued their work of modernising the public service of justice, which contributes to the efficiency of the European judicial system. In 2024, the focus was on developing the IT tools needed to handle the requests for a preliminary ruling transmitted to the General Court as well as on finalising the initial phases of the creation of an integrated case management system (SIGA) and preparing for the subsequent phases. All documents providing information for the general public were updated and disseminated in good time for the entry into force of the new provisions. Measures relating to physical and digital accessibility are also on the agenda for discussion by the court and its registry.

5. The work of the Registry of the General Court: adjusting to the reform and managing proceedings

The fall in the number of new cases had a beneficial effect for the Registry, as it reduced somewhat the pressure of the day-to-day work of managing judicial proceedings. This meant that time and resources could be devoted to the changes necessitated by the reform of the judicial system of the European Union and, in particular, to the preparations for the management of requests for a preliminary ruling.

However, the figures show that the level of activity continues at a sustained pace:

53 863 entries in the Register;
9 693 procedural documents lodged at the Registry;
822 290 pages filed via the e-Curia application during the past year.

The Registry assisted the Court’s judges at 346 Chamber conferences (334 in 2023), 232 hearings and the delivery of 37 judgments.