In a case brought by two nonprofit organisations against the
judgment of the EU General Court (the EU junior court) upholding
the European Commission's decision refusing to grant access to
four harmonized technical standards (HTS), the Advocate General
(AG) argued that the Court of Justice of the European Union (the EU
senior court) should annul the General Court's judgment and the
European Commission's decision and order the European
Commission to grant the two nonprofit organisations access to the
standards.
If the Court of Justice endorses the AG's reasoning, this
might have groundbreaking effects, as it could open the way to
requiring HTS to be made freely available.
HTS are adopted, typically in the context of EU product
legislation, by European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs),
further to a mandate issued by the European Commission. They
establish technical specifications that can be voluntarily used by
manufacturers to comply with the technical and
