The impact of influencers on advertising and consumer protection in the Single Market

Influencer marketing as part of the advertising industry has grown significantly in recent years, becoming one of the most popular and effective forms of online advertising. The fast-growing market of influencers comes with potential risks for consumers and creates several challenges for regulators. This study provides information and analysis on the impact of influencers on advertising and consumer protection in the Internal Market, identifies best practices and makes recommendations for future action. This document was provided by the Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies at the request of the committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO)

Disconnecting Humanitarian Law from EU Subsidiary Protection: A Hypothesis of Defragmentation of International Law

The development of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) has often revealed the tight interrelation between refugee law, humanitarian law and international criminal law. It has been argued that the latter bodies of law have, in fact, played a major role in the development of most key concept of the European Union asylum acquis. Drawing from the judgment issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Diakité, this article aims to prove that this assumption is not always true, especially with reference to the interpretation of specific concepts of international humanitarian law (IHL) and, in particular, the controversial notion of ‘internal armed conflict’. In tackling the sensitive issue of clarifying the meaning of ‘internal armed conflict’ in order to investigate the grounds to warrant subsidiary protection under the Qualification Directive, the Court provided an autonomous interpretation that goes beyond IHL, thus offering another occasion to investigate the interrelation between international law and the EU legal order. While contributing to the ongoing debate on the relationship between international law and the EU legal order, the article will consider the impact of the Court's reasoning on the EU asylum acquis, and will consider whether disconnecting the Qualification Directive from IHL, instead of producing further fragmentation of international law, may contribute to its defragmentation, conceived of as a harmonic co-ordination of different branches of law

Solving a sustainability-deficit in European competition law

It is undeniable that there is a tension between European competition law and sustainability focused agreements between undertakings. Whether it should, and how it could, be resolved is less clear. The necessity of providing ‘more room’ for sustainability-focused agreements is contested. Set within the wider discussion on the (proper) goals for European competition law, these public interests are often seen as alien to an economic approach of competition law. By taking developments in the Netherlands, where the tension seems to play out most visibly, as starting point, this article first sets out the argument that there is a sustainability-deficit within current competition law, and delineates where this deficit is ‘located’. The article then provides an overview of possible solutions. These are not (all) immediately applicable but would need tweaking existing competition law’s instruments. Thus both to the interpretation of the Article 101 (3) TFEU exception clause and to the doctrines relating to placing entities or activities outside the scope of Article 101 (1) TFEU are discussed, as is the underlying rationale relating to the dichotomy between market and government

Repressief bestuursrecht

‘De afgelopen kwart eeuw is het bestuursrecht ontegenzeggelijk steeds repressiever geworden.’2 Met die constatering begint het preadvies ‘De repressieve samenleving en het bestuursrecht: worstelend op zoek naar een betere balans tussen wetteloosheid en rechteloosheid’, dat Tom Barkhuysen & Michiel van Emmerik dit jaar hebben geschreven voor de Nederlandse Juristen Vereniging (NJV). Het is een prachtig preadvies geworden, dat leest als een trein en getuigt van een grote kennis van het onderwerp. Hoewel de analyses afgewogen en genuanceerd zijn, leidt hun betoog tot prikkelende stellingen. Als de preadviseurs hun zin krijgen, voert de wetgever binnenkort alleen nog nieuwe bestuurlijke sancties en maatregelen in als ze strikt noodzakelijk zijn, dragen wetgever, bestuur en rechter gezamenlijk zorg voor een evenredige sanctionering (ook bij cumulatie van bestuurlijke maatregelen en strafsancties), stemt de bestuursrechter de toetsingsintensiteit van bestuurlijke sancties af op de ingrijpendheid ervan, geldt bij zware ingrepen in grondrechtelijke belangen de eis van een voorafgaande rechterlijke toestemming et cetera. Hierna wordt bekeken hoe de preadviseurs tot deze en nog veel meer voorstellen zijn gekomen en of alles even wenselijk is. Daartoe wordt eerst de inhoud van het preadvies op hoofdlijnen weergegeven (par. 1). Daarna besteed ik achtereenvolgens aandacht aan het belang van evenredigheid (par. 2), aan de verantwoordelijkheid van de gehele trias voor een goede balans bij de handhaving (par. 3) en aan voorafgaande rechterlijke betrokkenheid (par. 4)

Het Europees Openbaar Ministerie in Nederland: Over zijn ondeelbaarheid en verhouding tot de Nederlandse strafrechter

Op 1 juni 2021 werd het Europees Openbaar Ministerie operationeel. Ook Nederland is een deelnemende staat. Onlangs kwam de Nederlandse invoeringswet tot stand. Die kenmerkt zich door haar bondigheid. Daarmee blijft onduidelijk wat de strafrechtspleging van het EOM kan verwachten en wat het EOM op zijn beurt van de actoren in de strafrechtspleging en de partners daarbuiten verwacht

Prejudiciële vragen over de geldigheid van EU-handelingen en effectieve rechtsbescherming: Eurobolt-arrest.

In juli 2019 heeft het Hof van Justitie uitspraak gedaan in de zaak Eurobolt BV. Het verzoek om een prejudiciële beslissing is ingediend door de Hoge Raad in een nationale procedure die door Eurobolt is aangespannen in reactie op de heffing van antidumpingrechten. Dit arrest van het Hof van Justitie is zeer relevant voor het stelsel van rechtsbescherming in de EU in het kader van rechterlijke toetsing van geldigheid van EU-recht. De kernvraag in deze zaak is of een nationale rechter informatie van EU-instellingen kan opvragen om de mogelijke ongeldigheid van een EU-handeling nader te onderzoeken. In dit artikel worden de uitspraak van het Hof van Justitie en de gevolgen daarvan voor het functioneren van nationale rechters geëvalueerd in de context van het EU-recht en met name de prejudiciële procedure

Will Requirements for Last Wills Remain as They Are?: The ‘Physical Presence Requirement’ of Witnesses and Notaries in the Light of the COVID-19 Interim Measures and the EU Freedom of (Notarial) Services

The COVID-19-crisis has exposed the shortcomings of formal requirements for legal acts which involve the physical presence of others. This is in particular true with regard to last wills which require the physical presence of a notary and/or witnesses, who have to authenticate and/or attest to the last will of the testator. In such cases, the physical presence requirement imposes an outright obstruction to passing a last will in times of COVID-19. Western countries have responded differently to COVID-19. In the civil-law jurisdictions where only notarial wills are offered, such as the Netherlands, the government has introduced interim measures allowing the testator (and witnesses, if required) to appear before the notary by audio-video technology, leading to authorized remote notarization and remote witnessing. The same has been done in common law jurisdictions where only witnessed wills are offered, including Australia, New Zealand and some states in the United States with regard to witnessing. The first part of this paper researches the different types of last wills and seeks to explain why countries have responded differently in this respect to COVID-19. The second part discusses the different solutions available and argues that solutions introducing audio-video technology as an alternative for physical presence are more favourable than other solutions. Remote authentication and remote witnessing leaves intact the existing will-types of the particular jurisdiction as they are, modernizing the presence requirement of the notary and/or the witnesses, while at the same time preserving legal certainty by anchoring these possibilities in legislation. Introducing audio-video technology in making last wills seems a logical step forward in the 21st century. Building on the two previous parts, the third part investigates a more fundamental issue relating to the physical presence requirement for notarial wills from a European Union free movement of services perspective. Discussing ECJ case law and two applicable directives, it shows that Member States are allowed to restrict the freedom of establishment of notaries and freedom to provide notarial services. These restrictions often lead to a domestic monopoly of notaries, where notaries appointed in the Member State offer exclusively notarial services under the legislation of that Member State, with the requirement that these notaries can only be established in and only offer their services that Member State. Combined with the physical presence requirement, these restrictions to the freedom of establishment and the freedom of services effectively force a testator desiring to make its last will before a notary to travel to the Member State of that notary. Even without COVID-19, it is the question whether this physical presence requirement unnecessarily restricts the freedom of services under art. 56 TFEU, as it deprives the notary and the testator of a rapid and direct technique of passing notarial wills. The possibility of remote authentication under interim legislation raises the question whether the physical presence requirement is objectively justified and proportionate to restrict the freedom of services

Het Europees Openbaar Ministerie in Nederland: Over zijn prioritaire bevoegdheid, verhouding tot het OM en de bestuursrechtelijke handhavingskolom

Op 1 juni 2021 werd het Europees Openbaar Ministerie operationeel. Ook Nederland is een deelnemende staat. Onlangs kwam de Nederlandse invoeringswet tot stand. Die kenmerkt zich door haar bondigheid. Daarmee blijft onduidelijk wat de strafrechtspleging van het EOM kan verwachten en wat het EOM op zijn beurt van de actoren in de strafrechtspleging en de partners daarbuiten verwacht. In twee opeenvolgende bijdragen in dit tijdschrift wordt ingegaan op de verhouding van het EOM tot het Nederlandse OM en de bestuursrechtelijke handhavingskolom (deel 1) en op de verhouding tot de Nederlandse rechterlijke macht (deel 2). Die verhoudingen worden uitgewerkt aan de hand van twee van dragende pijlers van het EOM systeem, diens prioritaire bevoegdheid ten opzichte van nationale autoriteiten en diens zogenaamde ondeelbaarheid

María de los Ángeles González Carreño v. Ministry of Justice

The ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court in Judgment No. 1263/2018, recognizing, for the first time, the binding character of the Views of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee), augmented the normative authority of the Views of the human rights treaty monitoring body, not only at the domestic level, but also within the international legal sphere. In the Judgment, the Spanish highest court held that the government must comply with the Views of the CEDAW Committee as a matter of the state's constitutional mandate as well as its international obligations. The Court's interpretation in this case meets the expectation of human rights treaty monitoring bodies that states are obligated to respond to their Views concerning individual communications, despite some states parties’ claims to the contrary