ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT
26 October 2023 (*)
(Appeal – Confidentiality – Information treated as confidential at first instance)
In Case C‑353/23 P,
APPEAL under Article 56 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, brought on 7 June 2023,
Nouryon Performance Formulations BV, established in Amsterdam (Netherlands), represented initially by R. Cana, R. Spangenberg and H. Widemann, avocats, and Z. Romata, Solicitor, and subsequently by R. Cana and R. Spangenberg, avocats, and Z. Romata, Solicitor,
appellant,
the other parties to the proceedings being:
Knoell NL BV, established in Maarssen (Netherlands),
Grillo-Werke AG, established in Duisburg (Germany),
PCC Trade & Services GmbH, established in Duisburg,
applicants at first instance,
European Commission,
defendant at first instance,
Kingdom of Denmark,
Kingdom of the Netherlands,
Kingdom of Sweden,
European Chemicals Agency (ECHA),
interveners at first instance,
THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT
having regard to the proposal from D. Gratsias, Judge-Rapporteur,
after hearing the Advocate General, J. Richard de la Tour,
makes the following
Order
1 By its appeal, Nouryon Performance Formulations BV seeks to have set aside the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 29 March 2023, Nouryon Industrial Chemicals and Others v Commission (T‑868/19, EU:T:2023:168), by which the General Court dismissed the action brought by Nouryon Industrial Chemicals, Knoell NL BV, Grillo-Werke AG and PCC Trade & Services GmbH for the annulment of Commission Implementing Decision C(2019) 7336 final of 16 October 2019 on the compliance check of a registration of dimethyl ether, adopted on referral by the European Chemicals Agency pursuant to Article 51(7) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).
2 By document lodged at the Court Registry on 7 June 2023, Nouryon Performance Formulations requested that the Court treat as confidential, vis-à-vis the interveners at first instance, certain material included in the file at first instance and other material produced for the first time in the appeal.
3 By letter of 3 October 2023, Nouryon Performance Formulations clarified that its request for confidential treatment relates only to pages 252 and 253 of Annex P.7 to the appeal, in so far as those pages contain information relating to the identity of a laboratory and the personal data of a member of its staff. To that end, Nouryon Performance Formulations has produced, as an annex to its request for confidential treatment before the Court, a non-confidential version of the pages in question.
4 That material corresponds to the passages of Annex A.13 to the application at first instance, in respect of which the General Court, by order of 20 January 2021 in Case T‑868/19 granted confidential treatment.
5 It should be recalled that 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.
6 However, where, as in the present case, a party is requesting, vis-à-vis parties that were interveners 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 (order of the President of the Court of Justice of 19 January 2023, Google and Alphabet v Commission, C‑738/22 P, EU:C:2023:44, paragraph 5 and the case-law cited).
7 Consequently, it is necessary to grant the request made by Nouryon Performance Formulations for confidential treatment in respect of the passages of Annex P.7 to the appeal corresponding to the passages of Annex A.13 to the application at first instance in respect of which confidential treatment has previously been granted. Accordingly, only the non-confidential version of Annex P.7 to the appeal shall be disclosed to the interveners at first instance. This decision is without prejudice to the admissibility of the appeal.
On those grounds, the President of the Court hereby orders:
1. The passages of Annex P.7 to the appeal corresponding to the passages of Annex A.13 to the application at first instance in respect of which confidential treatment has previously been granted in the proceedings which led to the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 29 March 2023, Nouryon Industrial Chemicals and Others v Commission (T‑868/19, EU:T:2023:168) shall be treated as confidential vis-à-vis the interveners at first instance. Only the non-confidential version of Annex P.7 to the appeal shall be served by the Registrar on the interveners at first instance.
2. The costs are reserved.
Luxembourg, 26 October 2023.
A. Calot Escobar | | K. Lenaerts |