European Court of Justice Rules on Second Languages

(CN) — An advocate general in the European Court of Justice on Wednesday recommended that the court affirm a ruling annulling the European Personnel Selection Office’s limiting job applicants’ required knowledge of a second language to English, French or German.

This case, involving Italy, resembled a similar recommendation Wednesday in a case involving Spain.

Also Wednesday, the Court of Justice ruled that Nestle cannot acquire an EU trademark for the “four-finger shape” of its Kit-Kat Bars. The ruling allows Mondelez to keep selling its 80-year-old Kvikk Lunsj chocolate bars, of similar shape.

Meanwhile, the high court justices advised a Belgian court to toss vacuum cleaner giant Dyson's challenge over how a competitor conducts EU-mandated energy tests and the energy rating label generated from those tests. Siding with its magistrate's opinion, the Luxembourg-based high court agreed BSH has no obligation to describe testing conditions on its vacuum cleaner's energy labels as Dyson claimed.

However, the high court said BSH's use of additional labels about energy use and performance may run afoul of EU law, if they confuse consumers. The court said it's up to the Belgian court hearing the case to make that determination.

In a case involving a Polish national, the EU Court of Justice ruled that a judicial authority called upon to execute a European arrest warrant must refrain from it if it considers there is a real risk that the person concerned would suffer a breach of his fundamental right to an independent tribunal and a fair trial in the member state.

The Court of Justice also ruled Wednesday on Croatia’s attempt to prosecute Zsolt Hernadi, chairman of the Hungarian oil group MOL. Ignoring the advice its magistrate offered in May, the Fifth Chamber ruled that "the execution of a European arrest warrant cannot be refused on the ground that a decision of the Public Prosecutor’s Office has closed a criminal investigation when, during that investigation, the requested person was interviewed as a witness only."

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