Judgment of the General Court (Second Chamber) of 20 February 2013 — Nikolaou v Court of Auditors

(Case T‑241/09)

Non-contractual liability — Court of Auditors — Conduct of internal investigations — Personal data — Illegality — Causal link — Limitation period

1.                     Non-contractual liability — Conditions — Unlawfulness — Damage — Causal link — Cumulative conditions (Art. 340, second para., TFEU) (see para. 20)

2.                     Non-contractual liability — Conditions — Causal link — Concept — Burden of proof (Art. 340, second para., TFEU) (see para. 21)

3.                     Actions for damages — Limitation period — Point from which time starts to run — Meeting of conditions for implementing non-contractual liability — Account taken of subjective assessment of the reality of the damage — Not permissible (Art. 340, second para., TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Arts 46 and 53, first para.) (see paras 22-24)

4.                     European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) — Regulation No 1073/1999 concerning investigations conducted by OLAF — Detailed rules for internal investigations adopted by the EU institutions — System adopted by the Court of Auditors — Transmission to OLAF of information gathered in an investigation — Right of the person concerned to be heard — None — Infringement of the rights of the defence — None (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1073/1999, Art. 7; Court of Auditors Decision 99/50, Art. 4) (see paras 30, 31, 40)

5.                     Court of Auditors — Obligation of members — Infringement — Transmission to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) of information gathered in an investigation — Information sent by OLAF to the judicial authorities — Competence of those authorities to assess those accusations in relation to criminal law — Judgment acquitting the persons concerned of all accusations — Court of Auditors not referring the matter to the Court of Justice — No implication that the Court of Auditors took a position on the relevance of the facts (Art. 247(7) EC) (see paras 40, 45-47)

Re:

ACTION for compensation for damage allegedly suffered by the applicant as a result of irregularities and infringements of EU law that the Court of Auditors allegedly committed in the context of an internal investigation.

Operative part

The Court:

1. Dismisses the action;

2. Orders Ms Kalliopi Nikolaou to pay the costs.