Landmark Rulings On The Time-Limits For Commencing Proceedings Against ECHA Decisions

The Court of Justice ('CJ') has issued two landmark rulings in Cases C-625/11 P and C-626/11 P PPG and SNF v ECHA. The CJ set aside the judgments of the General Court, clarifying two important issues: first, based on a progressive interpretation of the Rules of Procedure of the General Court, the CJ stated that the time-limit for commencing proceedings under Article 102(1) of those Rules applies not only to measures published in the Official Journal of the European Union, but also to decisions published on the internet, namely the decision of the European Chemicals Agency ('ECHA') to include a substance in the 'Candidate List' for eventual inclusion in Annex XIV of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restrictions of Chemicals ('REACH'). In practical terms, this means that the period of two months to institute proceedings runs from the end of the 14th day following the publication of the decision on the internet.