LEGAL NEWS










































 























 










 



 













 


























Death penalty: key facts about the situation in Europe and the rest of the world

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Annual Report on the execution of the European Court's judgments and decisions

Image
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, has called for further efforts to implement judgments from the European Court of Human Rights. Commenting on the  annual report for 2024  on the execution of the Court’s rulings, published today, the Secretary General said: “ This report shows what a concrete, positive impact judgments from the European Court of Human Rights have on the daily lives of the people of Europe. While a lot has been achieved, more needs to be done. The efficient execution of the Court's judgments is essential for the rule of law and democratic accountability in Europe .” The annual report from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers shows that 992 cases were transferred from the European Court of Human Rights to Committee, which supervises their implementation by member states, in 2024. Of those 992 new cases, 194 were “leading” cases – often requiring action to be taken by states to prevent the same violations happ...
Read more

Ombudsman inquiry on Commission President’s text messages is a wake-up call for EU

Image
The European Ombudsman inquiry into the Commission’s handling of a request for text messages between its President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company is a wake-up call for all EU institutions about ensuring accountability in an era of instant messaging. One year after the initial request by a journalist, the Commission has still not clarified whether messages reported to concern major vaccine procurement deals exist and whether the public is entitled to see them. The Ombudsman had asked the Commission, in a finding of maladministration in January, to conduct a more thorough search for the text messages. The Commission’s recent response failed to say whether it had looked directly and correctly for the text messages and if not, why not. While the response recognised that work-related text messages can be EU documents, it reiterated that the Commission’s internal policy is, in effect, not to register text messages. The Ombudsman has closed  the inquiry  and upheld...
Read more

The Delivery Delay Clause in Residential Construction Contracts: Consumer Protection in Cyprus and Europe

Image
By Giorgos Kazoleas, LL.M., Lawyer, Managing Partner at Legal Experts Cyprus The purchase or construction of a new residence is one of the most significant financial and personal decisions a consumer can make. Residential construction contracts or agreements for the sale of property under construction are a crucial and defining element of the entire process, as certain terms they may contain can be detrimental to the buyer. One of the most critical aspects is the contractual delivery time of the project and the provision for delay, through the so-called delivery delay clause. The Delivery Delay Clause: Its Role and Legal Nature The delivery delay clause (also known as a penalty clause in the event of default) is a term usually included in the contract that specifies a predetermined compensation amount that the contractor or seller must pay to the buyer for every day, week, or month of delay beyond the agreed delivery date. The purpose of the clause is twofold: -Compensatory: ...
Read more

The payment card user is deprived of the right to obtain a refund of an unauthorised payment transaction of which he or she has become aware if he or she delayed in notifying it to his or her provider with intent or gross negligence (CJEU)

Image
Judgment of the Court of Justice (1.8.2025) in Case C-665/23: Payment services: the payment card user is deprived of the right to obtain a refund of an unauthorised payment transaction of which he or she has become aware if he or she delayed in notifying it to his or her provider with intent or gross negligence This is the case even if he or she notified it to the payment institution within 13 months from the debit date. A consumer holds a gold deposit account with the company Veracash SAS. In March 2017 Veracash sent him a new withdrawal and payment card. Between March and May 2017, daily withdrawals were made from that account. The consumer in question claims, however, that he never received that payment card or authorised such withdrawals.  The Regional Court, Évry, (France), followed by the Court of Appeal, Paris, (France), dismissed his request for refund on the ground that the withdrawals at issue had not been notified to Veracash ‘without undue delay’, as required by the Mon...
Read more

Cancellation of a flight: The refund of the airline ticket price must include the commission collected by an intermediary at the time of purchase (CJEU)

Image
Judgment of the Court in Case C-45/24 (15.1.2026)- Verein für Konsumenteninformation : Cancellation of a flight: the refund of the airline ticket price must include the commission collected by an intermediary at the time of purchase. It is not necessary for the airline to know the exact amount of that commission. Several travellers purchased airline tickets on the booking portal of the Opodo travel agency [1] for a KLM return flight from Vienna (Austria) to Lima (Peru). Since the flights were cancelled, KLM reimbursed the amount they had paid, minus approximately € 95 that Opodo had charged them as agency commission. The air passengers concerned assigned their potential rights to reimbursement to a consumer protection association. That association contends, before the Austrian courts, that the reimbursement of the cost of the airline tickets by the airline in question should include the agency commission charged to passengers, as in the present case, by a travel agency acting as that a...
Read more

Harassment During Job Interviews Under Cyprus Law

Image
By Giorgos Kazoleas, LL.M., Lawyer, Managing Partner at Legal Experts Cyprus Harassment or bullying during a job interview can now legally be considered workplace harassment. This is explicitly provided for in recent Cypriot legislation regarding workplace harassment, which widens the scope of application to include candidates for employment. The Legal Framework in Cyprus: Law 42(I)/2025 Law 42(I)/2025 (The Prevention and Combating of Violence and Harassment at Work Law), which came into force on April 11, 2025, explicitly extends protection against harassment and violence to the recruitment process and employment negotiations before a contract is signed. According to the interpretation of terms in Article 2 of the Law, the definition of an "employee" includes, among others, a person: "Whose employment relationship has not yet begun, in cases where the violation of the provisions of this Law has been committed during the recruitment process or at another stage of...
Read more

Greece is ordered to pay financial penalties for failing to comply with a 2014 judgment of the Court of Justice

Image
Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-368/24 /Commission v Greece (Enforcement of the judgment on the Zakynthos landfill). Failure of a Member State to fulfil its obligations: Greece is ordered to pay financial penalties for failing to comply with a 2014 judgment of the Court of Justice. Greece is ordered to pay the European Commission a periodic penalty payment of €12 500 for each day of delay until the 2014 judgment has been complied with and a lump sum of €5 500 000 In the 2014 Commission v Greece judgment, [1] the Court held that Greece had failed to fulfil its obligations under two directives on waste. [2] [3]  Greece had not put an end to the use of a landfill in the Zakynthos National Maritime Park, the habitat of the ‘Caretta caretta’ sea turtle, even though the landfill was overfull and its malfunction represented a danger to health and the environment. With regard to the present case, an exchange of correspondence took place between the European Commission and Greece...
Read more