General Court too slow in delivering judgements

On January 10th, the General Court gave its first-ever damages award in the Gascogne case (T-577/14) for delayed proceedings within its own chambers. This decision was appealed by both the defendant (the EU) and the plaintiff (Gascogne). In the meantime, the Gascogne decision was confirmed by the Court’s rulings in Kendrion v. European Union (T-479/14 of 1 February 2017) and ASPLA v. European Union (T-40/15 of 17 February 2017). In all cases, the General Court considered its own chamber to fail on delivering the right to an effective remedy as laid down in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This Article provides that ‘everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law’. All cases relate to the General Court’s delay in determining cartel fines.