Appeal brought on 26 December 2023 by European Commission against the judgment of the General Court (Third Chamber) delivered on 18 October 2023 in Case T-402/20, Zippo Manufacturing and Others v Commission

(Case C-811/23 P)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Appellant: European Commission (represented by: G.-D. Balan and M. Mataija, Agents)

Other party to the proceedings: Zippo Manufacturing Co., Zippo GmbH and Zippo SAS

Form of order sought

The appellant claims that the Court should:

set aside the judgment under appeal;

order the applicants at first instance to pay the costs of the appeal and of the first instance.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Appellant submits two grounds of appeal.

First, the General Court incorrectly interpreted Article 41(2)(a) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (“the Charter”) and the right to be heard as part of the right to good administration. Indeed, the General Court erred in finding that the right to be heard of the Applicants at first instance was infringed because the General Court disregarded the requirement of Article 41(2)(a) of the Charter that a measure must be an “individual measure”, as the right to be heard does not extend to measures of general application. Finally, even if the Applicants at first instance had a right to be heard during the process of adoption of the Contested Regulation¹ , the General Court erred in finding that this right was not afforded to them by means of the public consultation.

Second, the General Court ruled ultra petita, as it annulled the Contested Regulation “in so far as it concerns products falling within CN code 9613 80 00”, while the application sought the annulment of the Regulation only “to the extent that those measures apply to the Applicants”.

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¹ Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/502 of 6 April 2020 on certain commercial policy measures concerning certain products originating in the United States of America (PB 2020, L 109, p. 10).