Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Interim measures — Suspension of operation — Conditions for granting — Prima facie case — Serious and irreparable damage — Cumulative conditions — Consequences — (Arts 242 EC and 243 EC; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(2))

2. Interim measures — Suspension of operation — Suspension of the obligation to provide a bank guarantee as a condition for not requiring immediate payment of a fine — Conditions for granting — Exceptional circumstances — (Art. 242 EC)

Summary

1. An application for interim measures must specify the circumstances giving rise to the urgency and the pleas in fact and in law justifying prima facie (fumus boni juris) the granting of the interim measure sought. These conditions are cumulative, so that an application for suspension must be dismissed if one of them is lacking.

see para. 12

2. An application for suspension of the obligation to provide a bank guarantee as a condition for not requiring immediate payment of a fine can be accepted only in exceptional circumstances. The possibility of requiring the provision of a financial guarantee is explicitly laid down for interim proceedings by the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance and corresponds to a general and reasonable course of conduct on the part of the Commission.

The existence of such exceptional circumstances may, in principle, be regarded as being established when the party seeking to be exempted from provision of the required bank guarantee adduces evidence that it is objectively impossible for it to provide that guarantee or that providing it would endanger its existence. The relevance of that evidence must be assessed in the light of the objective economic situation of the applicant.

see paras 32-35