The Seal Product Ban under EU Law

Following up on this post, blog reader Laurens Ankersmit points me to an EU General Court order deciding that the action brought against the seal product ban under EU law was inadmissible  because the applicants did not have standing, on the basis that they were not  directly and individually concerned by the Regulation. So, nothing substantive was said about the compatibility  of the regulation with primary EU law.

He notes that there might still be a challenge of the Regulation through a  reference for a preliminary ruling by a national court, but the direct action  failed.

The EU court web site does not make the order easy to link to, but go here, then click on "submit", and it's the most recent document.

ADDED: More details from Laurens Ankersmit:

There is a second case before the General Court. This is a direct action brought  by partly the same applicants on the validity of a Commission Regulation  implementing the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council.

So there are two cases:

-          The first is case  T-18/10, the challenge of the ‘parent’ measure, Regulation 1007/2009. This  action was held to be inadmissible.

-          The second is case  T-526/10, where the Commission regulation 737/2010 implementing Regulation  1007/2009, is challenged. This case is still pending…

If the applicants do have standing in the second case, there  might be a plea of illegality in which the parent measure (Regulation 1007/2009)  can be challenged.

Again, if subsequently a national court decides to make a  reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice and poses questions  on the validity of one of the regulations or both, the Court can declare the  regulations invalid. That is, if also in the second case the applicants lack  standing. I think that their chances are better in the second case, but we will  have to see how it plays out.