General Court News

European renewable ethanol producers have launched a legal challenge to the EU’s FuelEU Maritime Regulation on the grounds that it fails to properly recognise the proven benefits of sustainable crop-based biofuels and has therefore violated several key EU legislative procedures.Companies representing nearly all of the EU’s production of renewable ethanol are seeking to annul a section of the legislation that considers crop-based biofuels to have the same emission factors as the least favourable fossil fuel pathway.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings said on Monday it had appealed to an EU court to fight the European Commission's January decision to block its takeover bid for rival shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.The suit, made to the European Union's General Court, was filed on March 23, a Hyundai spokesperson said.Hyundai argued that regulators in other regions had accepted the shipbuilding industry was a market controlled by shipowners' orders and preferences, not market share, and so the proposed takeover did not hurt competition, the spokesperson said.(Reuters - Reporting by Joyce

The UK Treasury deleted names of three Iranian martitime companies active in maritime transportation from its list of entities entitled to financial sanctions. As per report by IRNA British HM Treasury has announced that following the EU, it had removed from its list sanctions the names of the three Iranian companies that had already been sanctioned due to the EU non-proliferation sanctions. The asset freeze no longer applies to IRISL Club, IRISL Multimodal Transport Company and Leading Maritime PTE LTD. The notice reads that listings of these entities have been annulled as a result of judgments of the General Court of the European Union. U.S. sanctions barred the IRISL fleet of about 170 vessels from sailing in international waters.

Regulators cracking down on national schemes which benefit some; more legal battles ahead with Luxembourg, Dutch tax appeals. EU state aid regulators are looking to Europe's top court to back their decision against a Spanish tax lease scheme for shipbuilders, one of several cases included in a crackdown on national tax programmes which benefit only certain companies. The decision by the European Commission on Monday to appeal to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union came after a lower court threw out the EU executive's finding in December last year. Judges said the Spanish scheme which involved financing ship construction through a structure with two intermediaries…

Court says scheme does not give firms selective advantage; EU regulators cracking down on unfair tax systems. Europe's second-highest court gave clearance on Thursday to a Spanish tax lease scheme in the shipbuilding industry, annulling a decision by EU regulators two years ago that this gave a selective advantage to companies and so was illegal state aid. The ruling by the Luxembourg-based General Court underlines the hurdles facing the European Commission in its crackdown on corporate tax avoidance and national programmes that benefit only certain groups. The Spanish scheme involved financing ship construction through a structure with two intermediaries, and allowing shipping companies to get a rebate of 20 to 30 percent on the price of vessels built by Spanish shipyards.

A Coast Guardsman was convicted and sentenced during a General Court-Martial in New Orleans, Thursday. Petty Officer 2nd Class Leonel Hinojosa, 32, was sentenced to reduction to E-1, confinement for two years, and a Dishonorable Discharge from the United States Coast Guard. While he is in confinement he forfeits the right to his pay and allowances. Hinojosa was convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice of two specifications of Article 92 (dereliction of duty), one specification of Article 107 (false official statement), three specifications of Article 120 (abusive sexual contact) and one specification of Article 128 (assault consummated by battery).

A legal attempt by Iran's main oil tanker firm NITC to stop the European Union from reimposing sanctions on it over its disputed nuclear program has failed in a London court, setting back Tehran's efforts to ease trade restrictions. Iran is engaged in nuclear talks with world powers as it tries to strike a final deal to lift the sanctions that have halved its oil exports to just over 1 million barrels per day since 2012 and hammered its economy. EU governments were due imminently to re-include NITC, a major carrier of Iran's oil, on a blacklist of people and entities targeted by the bloc's sanctions, High Court Judge Nicholas Green said on Monday.

The European Union's second highest court on Thursday annulled EU sanctions on an Iranian bank and 40 shipping companies hit with asset freezes as part of pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme. But they will remain under sanctions for now after the General Court gave the EU time to appeal or to decide whether to re-impose sanctions using different legal grounds. The court's rulings were handed down as six major powers and Iran strive to meet an end-June deadline for a long-term agreement to curb Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. The EU put Bank Tejarat, an Iranian commercial bank, under sanctions in 2012, saying it had helped Iran's nuclear efforts.

European Union sanctions on Iran's main oil tanker firm NITC have been annulled after the EU failed to appeal against a court ruling that ordered the measures to be lifted, the shipping company said on Tuesday. NITC - a major transporter of Iran's oil - had contested the EU's blacklisting, arguing that the firm is privately owned by Iranian pension funds. It has denied any links with the Iranian government or with the Revolutionary Guards. The sanctions - imposed in 2012 over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme - prohibited any trade between the EU…

European Union sanctions on Iran's main oil tanker firm NITC have been annulled after the EU did not appeal against a court ruling that the measures should be lifted, the shipping group's lawyer said on Tuesday. In July the Luxembourg-based General Court, the second-highest court in the EU, ruled there were no grounds to blacklist NITC in the bloc after the company contested the designation. Rulings are typically suspended for two months pending appeals. "We are glad to see the (European) Council accept the judgment of the EU court that the sanctions were unlawful, although it is regrettable that they did not see fit to lift the sanctions sooner," said Rovine Chandrasekera of law firm Stephenson Harwood, which represented NITC.

Cash-strapped ferry operator SNCM looks set to seek legal protection from its creditors after Europe's highest court ruled on Thursday it must pay back 220 million euros ($289 million) of French state aid. SNCM, owned 66 percent by transport group Transdev, has racked up losses as low-cost competitors have eaten away its market share and is fast running out of funds. Transdev - itself a joint venture between water and waste firm Veolia and French state bank CDC - has said it will…

Iran's main oil tanker firm NITC will struggle for some time to call at European ports, get foreign insurance and overcome obstacles under western sanctions, even after a top court has annulled its blacklisted status in the European Union. An interim deal between Iran and world powers signed in November has provided the Islamic Republic with some sanctions relief, helping to boost oil sales. But continued restrictions on shipping and insurance have meant that a return to Tehran's pre-sanction export level of over 2 million barrels per day (bpd) is still some way off. The European court ruling "will not give them carte blanche to transport cargos…