Commission of the European Communities v. Jégo-Quéré & Cie SA. Case C-263/02 P

Abstract

The approach that the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) has taken to the standing of private parties seeking to bring actions for annulment of European Community (EC) measures in the Community courts (the ECJ and the Court of First Instance (CFI)) has been one of the most widely debated and criticized areas of EC law. In Jego-Quere v. Commission of the European Communities (Commission), the CFI was required to rule on the admissibility of an action brought by an individual applicant against a Commission regulation. In a bold move the CFI fundamentally changed the requirements for the admissibility of actions brought by natural or legal persons against EC legislation in the Community courts. The new rules did not, however, survive the appeal to the ECJ. In Commission of the European Communities v. Jego-Quere & Cie SA, the Court reaffirmed its long-established test for the standing of private applicants. This article discusses both decisions and comments critically on the ECJ's unnecessarily restrictive approach to locus standi for private parties.