Foreign Sanctions: CJEU Interprets EU Blocking Statute

In a Grand Chamber judgment of 21 December 2021 in preliminary ruling case Bank Melli Iran v Telekom Deutschland GmbH  (C-124/20  ), the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") was asked to interpret for the first time Regulation 2271/96 protecting against the effects of the extra-territorial application of legislation adopted by a third country, and actions based thereon or resulting therefrom ("EU Blocking Statute  ").

The EU Blocking Statute aims to protect EU natural and legal persons against the effects of the extra-territorial application of certain foreign laws specified in its annex. Its Article 5 prohibits such persons from complying with any requirement or prohibition imposed by such foreign laws unless authorisation to be exempt from this prohibition is granted by the European Commission. One of the laws listed is the US Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012, which prohibits any person to trade, outside the US territory, with any