ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT
22 March 2022 (*)
(Appeal – Confidentiality – Information treated as confidential at first instance)
In Case C‑48/22 P,
APPEAL under Article 56 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, brought on 20 January 2022,
Google LLC, established in Mountain View (United States),
Alphabet Inc., established in Mountain View,
represented by T. Graf, Rechtsanwalt, R. Snelders, advocaat, C. Thomas, avocat, A. Bray, avocate, M. Pickford QC, and by D. Gregory and H. Mostyn, Barristers,
appellants,
the other parties to the proceedings being:
European Commission, represented by F. Castillo de la Torre, N. Khan, A. Dawes, C. Urraca Caviedes and H. Leupold, acting as Agents,
defendant at first instance,
Computer & Communications Industry Association,
Federal Republic of Germany,
EFTA Surveillance Authority,
Bureau européen des unions de consommateurs (BEUC), established in Brussels (Belgium), represented by A. Fratini, avvocata,
Infederation Ltd,
Kelkoo,
Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger eV,
Visual Meta GmbH,
BDZV ‑ Bundesverband Digitalpublisher und Zeitungsverleger eV,
Twenga,
interveners at first instance,
THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT
having regard to the proposal of O. Spineanu-Matei, Judge-Rapporteur,
after hearing the Advocate General, J. Kokott,
makes the following
Order
1 By their appeal, Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. seek to have set aside the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 10 November 2021, Google and Alphabet v Commission (Google Shopping) (T‑612/17, EU:T:2021:763), by which the General Court annulled Article 1 of Commission Decision C(2017) 4444 final of 27 June 2017 relating to a proceeding under Article 102 TFEU and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement (Case AT.39740 – Google Search (Shopping)) in so far only as the European Commission found an infringement of those provisions by Google and Alphabet in 13 national markets for general search services within the European Economic Area (EEA) on the basis of the existence of anticompetitive effects in those markets, and dismissed their action as to the remainder.
2 By document lodged at the Court Registry on 2 February 2022, Google and Alphabet have requested that the Court treat as confidential, vis-à-vis the interveners at first instance, Annex 2 to their appeal, corresponding to the confidential version of that Commission decision, precisely as the General Court treated that same document, contained in Annex A.1 to their application at first instance, as confidential in the proceedings in Case T‑612/17. To that end, Google and Alphabet have attached a non-confidential version of that Annex 2 to their request for confidential treatment before the Court of Justice.
3 As Google and Alphabet state, that Annex 2 does indeed correspond to Annex A.1 to their application initiating proceedings before the General Court, for which confidential treatment was granted by the order of the General Court of 11 April 2019, Google and Alphabet v Commission (T‑612/17, not published, EU:T:2019:250).
4 Article 171(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice provides that the appeal is to be served on the other parties to the relevant case before the General Court. Furthermore, pursuant to Article 172 of those rules, any party to the relevant case before the General Court having an interest in the appeal being allowed or dismissed may submit a response within two months after service of the appeal on that party. It follows from those provisions that the appeal and the other procedural documents lodged before the Court of Justice are also to be served, in principle, on the parties admitted as interveners before the General Court.
5 However, where a party is requesting, vis-à-vis parties that intervened before the General Court, confidential treatment in respect of material produced before the Court of Justice which has already been treated as confidential vis-à-vis those same parties in the proceedings at first instance, that same confidential treatment must, in principle, be maintained for the purposes of the proceedings before the Court of Justice (see, to that effect, orders of the President of the Court of Justice of 13 December 2016, Lundbeck v Commission, C‑591/16 P, not published, EU:C:2016:967, paragraph 5, and of 17 November 2021, Commission v Amazon.com and Others, C‑457/21 P, not published, EU:C:2021:1054, paragraph 5 and the case-law cited).
6 It follows from the foregoing that the request of Google and of Alphabet for confidential treatment vis-à-vis the interveners at first instance in respect of the document contained in Annex 2 to their appeal must be granted. Accordingly, only the non-confidential version of that annex shall be disclosed by the Registrar to those interveners.
On those grounds, the President of the Court hereby orders:
1. The document contained in Annex 2 to the appeal of Google LLC and of Alphabet Inc. shall be treated as confidential vis-à-vis the interveners at first instance, and only the non-confidential version of that annex shall be required to be served by the Registrar on those interveners.
2. The costs are reserved.
Luxembourg, 22 March 2022.
A. Calot Escobar | | K. Lenaerts |