Judgment of the General Court (Second Chamber) of 20 September 2011 – Arch Chemicals and Others v Commission

(Case T-120/08)

Action for annulment – Health policy – Marketing of biocidal products – Regulation (EC) No 1451/2007 – Not individually concerned – Inadmissibility – Default procedure

Actions for annulment – Natural or legal persons – Measures of direct and individual concern to them – Possibility of being individually concerned by a general decision – Conditions – Commission regulation designed to establish the rules for applying the work programme for examining all existing active substances – Action brought by procducers of active substances – Not individually concerned – Inadmissibility (Art. 230, fourth para., EC; Commission Regulation No 1451/2007) (see paras 34-38, 44-46, 49-50)

Re:

APPLICATION for annulment of Article 3(2), Article 4, Article 7(3), the second subparagraph of Article 14(2), Article 15(3), Article 17 of and Annex II to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1451/2007 of 4 December 2007 on the second phase of the 10-year work programme referred to in Article 16(2) of Directive 98/8/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market (OJ 2007, L 325, p. 3).

Operative part

The Court:

1. Dismisses the action;

2. Declares that there is no need to adjudicate on the applications for leave to intervene made by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union;

3. Orders Arch Chemicals, Inc., Arch Timber Protection Ltd, Rhodia UK Ltd, Sumitomo Chemical (UK) plc and Troy Chemical Co. BV to bear their own costs;

4. Orders the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) to bear its own costs.