Tag: international

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Dutch court readily seems to accept ‘international’ element in prima facie entirely German case. RM RENT A CAR v KFZ BRÜNING.

A note on RM RENT A CAR v KFZ BRÜNING ECLI:NL:RBNHO:2023:7489 in which the Noord-Holland court of first instance much more readily accepts the escalation of a purely domestic (German) contract to the ‘international’ plain. Clearly in contrast with de la Tour AG in Inkreal.

RM Rent A car argues that the close links it has with The Netherlands, as a result of a number of its directors are domiciled in The Netherlands, as is its mother holding Network4Cars Trading B.V., explain Dutch choice of court and the Dutch governing law clause. It also refers to the Report Jenard, a contrario I assume (for that detail is not given) p.37 in fine (where the report argues that (now) A25 does not apply between to parties domiciled in the same State and designating a court of that State).

KFZ Brüning by contrast argue that the sale between two German corporations, of German registered vehicles, with delivery in Germany, lacks the international element required to trigger Brussels Ia.

The Court goes about the issue in a roundabout way. It says nothing about the ‘international character’ (arguably implicitly acknowledging it), instead merely finding 2.8 that there is no proof that in signing the purchase order, Brüning also consented to the GTCS.

As noted, an interesting judgment in light of the AG’s Opinion in Inkreal.

Geert.
EU Private International Law. 4th ed. 2024, para 2.22 ff.

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Richard de la Tour AG in Inkreal: a controversial Opinion on ‘international’ in “private international law”, and one I do not think will be followed by the CJEU.

Richard de la tour AG opined last Thursday in C‑566/22 Inkreal aka Inkreal s. r.  v Dúha reality s. r. o..

At issue is whether the sole use of international choice of court suffices to escalate a purely internal case to the ‘international’ level, hence within the reach of the Brussels Ia Regulation. The AG opined it does not. I don’t think he is right and I suspect the CJEU will not follow him.

FD, resident in Slovakia, as the assignor, and Dúha reality s. r. o., a company domiciled in Slovakia, as the assignee, concluded two loan agreements on 29 June 2016 and 11 March 2017 respectively. By means of a voluntary assignment agreement dated 8 December 2021, FD assigned the claims arising from those loan agreements to Inkreal, a company domiciled in Slovakia. In each of those agreements, the parties agreed that ‘any ambiguities or disputes arising from the agreement and in connection therewith shall be first resolved by negotiation aimed at reaching a solution acceptable for both parties. If the parties are unable to settle such a dispute, the dispute shall be settled by a court of the Czech Republic having substantive and territorial jurisdiction, in line with the [Code of Civil Procedure], as amended’. Following non-payment, Inkreal brought an action before the Czech courts, in application of the choice of court agreement.

(31) onwards the AG sides with that part of scholarship (most of the authors he refers to wrote in French or German, just a few in English and he seems to only cite Mankowski as holding opposite views; I am not saying that French or German scholarship ought not to be cited, far from it, it ought to much more frequently in all possible EU languages; yet there is more scholarship on the issue both by English scholars and by others writing in English) and national case-law which argues against Article 25 BIa catching such choice of court, alleging lack of ‘international’ element.

He develops five main reasons (see the Opinion for more detail) with often only one source for each.

  1. (32).  The mere will of the parties in a purely internal situation must not suffice: existence of an international element has to be established according to “objective criteria”. I for one do not understand how party autonomy is not an “objective criterion”.
  2. (33) ff Brussels Ia cannot have the effect of eliminating any distinction between the national and international rules of jurisdiction governed by EU law.  Four arguments to the contrary of a textual or teleological nature based on A25 BIa must in the AG’s view be dismissed. First, that non-EU domiciled parties can make valid choice of law for an EU court in his view is of no value; Second, the independence of the will of the parties cannot enables parties to “call into question the scope of that regulation, which is limited to international and not purely internal situations.” ( a clear circular argument);  Third, A25’s new lex causae rule for substantive validity of choice of court cannot rescue choice of court which does not initially engage with a ‘international’ situation (again circular); Fourth, the clear movement from Brussels I onwards towards supporting choice of court does not justify authorising the parties to derogate from national rules on jurisdiction without any limit or connecting factor. 
  3. (38) The AG cites CJEU Owusu, Lindner and IRnova as confirming his view that “objective criteria” are required to support an international element (Owusu and IRnova) or the foreign nationality of the defendant (Lindner).
  4. (40 ff) Rome I cannot be used as a benchmark, both because purely internal situations in Rome I remain subject to mandatory national provisions (see of course VinylsItalia) and because Rome I’s DNA is party autonomy which Brussels Ia’s Article 25 it is suggested is not. (Had he not lost me already, the AG would certainly have lost me here). The AG also refers in support to the 2005 Hague Choice of Court Convention and recitals in Council Decision 2014/887 (making the EU accede to that Convention and referring to links between both and one or two Hague anchors in Brussels Ia; but nowhere near the symmetry the AG suggests), opining that A1(2) Hague Convention somehow needs to be extended to Brussels Ia: that Article reads “a case is international unless the parties are resident in the same Contracting State and the relationship of the parties and all other elements relevant to the dispute, regardless of the location of the chosen court, are connected only with that State.” Extending A1(2) Hague 2005 to Brussels Ia in my view is a massive stretch of statutory construction.
  5. Finally (43) the AG somewhat backtracks and suggests factors testifying to an international element “should be assessed by the court seised on a case-by-case basis in a flexible manner or according to a broad conception.”

Finally the AG suggests (45 ff) that the CJEU should advice the referring court and ‘practice’ in general on the A25 conflit (viz the ‘international element’) mobile issue. When must the international nature of the situation be assessed: when the jurisdiction agreement is concluded or when the designated court is seised by the parties? Here he emphasises the contractual nature of the determination of jurisdiction (in direct contrast with his views above) and legal certainty rather than foreseeability, and suggests the international nature be assessed at the stage when the choice of court clause is agreed, not when the court is seised. That in my view undermines the core forum shopping intention of both Article 25 and Article 26 (voluntary appearance).

(49) the AG oddly backtracks again on this issue by suggesting that “it might be accepted that, in an internal situation with a prospect of becoming international, the parties [may] agree, when concluding their agreement, to designate a court of a Member State in sufficiently precise terms which express their intention  and provide for the exclusive jurisdiction of national courts where there is doubt as to the existence of a criterion requiring an international element.”  Rather than increasing legal certainty, that is bound to upend it IMHO.

The CJEU of course is not likely to entertain this last part of the Opinion.

In general, I believe it will have a more generous view of party autonomy and an eye on the interests of the European Judicial Area (per prof Dickinson), perhaps also as suggested by Matthew Hoyle, referring to Brussels Ia’s corrective mechanisms both for protected categories and ordre public (Article 45 BIa).

Geert.
EU Private International Law. 4th ed. 2024, para 2.22 ff.
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Commerzbank. The CJEU adopts a flexible approach on the ‘international’ in ‘private international law’, at least for the protected category of consumers.

I reviewed the AG’s Opinion in C-296/20 Commerzbank here. The CJEU held a few weeks back, rejecting the AG’s main proposal and instead following him on the subsidiary argument – I lean towards the AG’s first option. For the consumer section, it now suffices the international element surfaces only after the contract has been concluded, provided of course (I am assuming; the CJEU refers to the case but is not quite clear) the contract at issue meets with the Pammer Alpenhof criteria: the business concerned need not necessarily actively pursue a commercial activity in the State in which the consumer is now domiciled, yet its organisation of operations and marketing is such as to meet the ‘directed at’ criteria of the consumer section.

It is to be assumed that the Court’s flexible interpretation (for which it relies to a large degree on mBank) of the international element to this far-reaching extent, only applies given the protective intent of Lugano’s (and Brussels Ia’s) consumer, potentially employees’ and insurance title. It carries far les authority for B2B contracts I would suggest.

Geert.

EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, 2.222 ff.

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ZN v [Bulgarian Consulate]. Confirming Mahamdia and the ‘international’ in ‘private international law’.

In C-280/20, ZN v Generalno konsulstvo na Republika Bulgaria v grad Valensia, Kralstvo Ispania [the Bulgarian consulate], the CJEU last week essentially confirmed CJEU C-154/11 Mahamdia. ZN is a Bulgarian national residing in Sofia who holds a permit to reside in Spain, where she provided services relating to the activity of the Consulate General. ZN brought an action in Bulgaria against the Consulate General seeking, first, recognition of her employment relationship and, second, payment of compensation in lieu of paid annual leave not taken during a period in which she provided services concerning the receipt of documents. The Consulate General contests the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian courts and invokes the jurisdiction of the Spanish courts as the courts of ZN’s place of employment. The referring court has doubts as to the existence of cross-border implications in so far as the dispute at issue in the main proceedings concerns a Bulgarian employee and a Bulgarian employer, and the fact that their legal relationship is closely connected with the Republic of Bulgaria.  It also notes that Bulgarian law expressly provides that, in the case of contracts concluded between a Bulgarian employer established abroad and a Bulgarian national working abroad, any disputes may be examined only by the Bulgarian courts.

In Mahamdia the Court first of all applied the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and held that an embassy often acts iure gestionis, not iure imperii, and that under the Vienna rules, the EU is perfectly entitled to apply the Regulation given that it applies to ‘civil and commercial’ matters. In that vein, an embassy may very well have to be regarded as an ‘establishment’ within the meaning of Article 20(2) (on employment contracts). In ZN, the Court [28-29] suggests that services in connection with the receipt of documents in files opened at the consulate by Bulgarian nationals and the management of those files, do not fall within the exercise of public powers and do not risk interfering with the security interests of the Republic of Bulgaria. Hence it strongly suggests the issue is a ‘civil and commercial one’, leaving final determination of same to the referring court. I would intuitively have thought that processing documents at a country’s consulate quite au contraire, does engage closely with diplomatic functions that must be qualified as iure imperii, particularly seeing as before said processing one is likely not to have knowledge of the documents’ content.

On the issue of ‘international element’ required to trigger Brussels Ia, the Court per Mahamdia considers a consulate to be an ‘establishment’ of one Member State in another Member State. Hence one of the parties to the dispute must be considered to be domiciled or habitually resident in a Member State other than that of the court seised [37]: the cross-border element is clearly present, which will not surprise many of us. One also assumes that the  aforementioned Bulgarian rule on exclusive jurisdiction for employment disputes between Bulgarians even with an international element present, does not meet with EU law requirements.

Geert.

EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, para 2.35, para 2.128.

 

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Choice of court away from the jurisdiction: Article 25 in Brasil’s CPR rules.

A very brief post mainly for archival purposes particularly with a view to comparative conflict of laws. Tozzini Freire review the new Article 25 of Brasil’s civil procedure rules here, with a focus on the ‘international’ element required to trigger the validity of choice of court (compare Vinyls Italia), and the potential application of fraus in same.

Geert.

Handbook of) EU private international law, 2nd ed. 2016, Chapter 5, Heading 5.7.1. Chapter 3, Heading 3.2.8.1

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Kennedy v National Trust for Scotland. Applying forum non conveniens within the UK. And how to make a case ‘international’.

Update 12 June 2019 various reports refer to Kennedy v National Trust for Scotland [2019] EWCA Civ 648 as having confirmed the High Court approach. [update 11 January 2023 thank you Greg Callus for referring me to the text of the judgment] Text of judgment is not available publicly, once it is I shall be able to review the Court of Appeal’s reasoning on Brussels Ia. The case was used as authority in [2019] EWHC 1469 (QB) Advertising Standards Authority v Mitchell: jurisdiction for interim relief prohibiting disclosure of privileged legal advice following documents inadvertently sent to the wrong e-mail address.

In [2017] EWHC 3368 (QB) Kennedy v National Trust for Scotland, Eady J considers two important (for this blog at least) issues leading to dicta: when a prima facie domestic case may turn out to be international really; and following his ruling on same, the application of forum non conveniens intra-UK. I reviewed the latter issue, also intra-UK, in my analysis of Cook & McNeil (v Virgin & Tesco).

First the issue of the case being purely domestic or international. It is only when it is the latter, that the Brussels I Recast regime is engaged and, per Owusu, forum non conveniens excluded.

The Claimant, who is domiciled in Scotland, seeks damages and other remedies in this jurisdiction against the National Trust for Scotland in respect of a number of allegations published in both jurisdictions as well as in Italy, France and Brazil. He relies not only on defamation but also on negligence and on alleged breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998. The dispute arises over the Claimant’s attendance at Craigievar Castle in Aberdeenshire on 23 February 2012, when he took a series of photographs of a naked model for commercial purposes. He claims that he did so pursuant to an oral contract, entered into with a representative of the Defendant, which expressly authorised that activity. Some years later, this episode came to the attention of the daughter of Lord Sempill who had gifted the castle to the Defendant (more than 50 years ago) and she protested that it had been used for the purpose of taking nude photographs. Her remarks caught the attention of a journalist who made enquiries and was given a statement by or on behalf of the Defendant on 24 February 2016 which was reported in the Scottish Mail on Sunday of 28 February. Thereafter, the Defendant also issued a press release which denied that the taking of the photographs had been authorised. This was sent to a number of media outlets including a reporter on the (London) Metro newspaper.

Claimant suggests that this is not “a purely domestic case” by referring to re-publication of the defamatory words in France and Italy. At 51 Eady J, with reference to the aforementioned Cook v Virgin Media, suggests the purpose of the regulation, and of the rule of general jurisdiction in particular, is to regularise issues of jurisdiction as between different states, and that no such question arises here, because the only potential competition is between the courts of Scotland and England & Wales (i.e. internal to the United Kingdom). I do not think this is the effect of CJEU precedent, Lindner in particular, as well as Maletic and Vinyls Italia (the latter re Rome I). The potential competition between the England and Scotland only arises if, not because, the Brussels I Regulation does not apply: the High Court’s argument is circular. In Linder and in Maletic, the CJEU upheld the application of Brussels I even though competing jurisdiction elsewhere in the EU was only potential, not actual. Given the potential for jurisdiction with courts in France and Italy, I would suggest the Lindner logic applies.

Eady J though applies forum non conveniens to establish Scotland as the more appropriate forum in the UK, and to stay the English case.

He then obiter (had FNC not applied), at 86 ff suggests the court develop a novel sub-national model of Shevill, such that only courts of the sub-national place where the publisher is domiciled would have jurisdiction to award global damages – and all other courts within the United Kingdom would be restricted to awarding damages for harm occurring within their relevant regions. Importantly, even for post-Brexit use, Eady J suggest the importation of CJEU case-law in applying English law of conflicts is appropriate for Parliament has approved rules in parallel to those under the Recast Regulation.

A little gem of a judgment.

Geert.

(Handbook of) EU Private international law, 2nd ed. 2016, Chapter 2, Heading 2.2.2.1.

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Vinyls Italia. A boon for conflict of laws (with a fraus component) and important findings on the insolvency Pauliana.

Another one from the exam queue. I reported earlier on Szpunar AG’s Opinion in C-54/16 Vinyls Italia – readers may want to refer tot that post before reading on. The case concerns the extent to which a bona fide creditor may insulate payments made to it by the insolvent debtor, to the detriment of the collectivity of the creditors, using choice of law for its contract with the debtor away from the lex concursus. The Court held on 8 June, much along the lines of its AG and earlier precedent especially Nike with respect to anti-avoidance actions. The judgment therefore is not of great novelty for this part of the insolvency Regulation. It is on the other hand of crucial importance for the interpretation of ‘international’ in European private international law.

Firstly, whether the court hearing the insolvency proceedings can or must raise the Article 13 (now 16) even if the party profiting from the insulation of its payments from the insolvency, has failed expressly to do so in its submissions. This, the CJEU held, is a matter of procedure, not harmonised in the Insolvency Regulation and lex fori therefore, subject to the usual condition that effet utile is guaranteed and that EU law is equally applied as national law.

The Court had already held in Nike that the defendant in an anti-avoidance (Pauliana) action has to prove both the facts from which the conclusion can be drawn that the act is unchallengeable and the absence of any evidence that would militate against that conclusion (at 25). The Court in Vinyls Italia qualifies that statement: the party bearing the burden of proof must show that, where the lex causae makes it possible to challenge an act regarded as being detrimental, the conditions to be met in order for that challenge to be upheld, which differ from those of the lex fori concursus, have not actually been fulfilled. However defendant does not have to show that the lex causae does not provide, in general or in the abstract, any means to challenge the act in question: such means of challenging the act almost always exist, at least in the abstract, and such strict interpretation would therefore deprive Article 13 (now 16) of its effectiveness (at 38). Of course how wide exactly the net of voidness needs to be cast, is not entirely clear from the judgment.

The final question then deals with the possibility of relying on (now) Article 16 in the situation provided for in Article 3(3) of the Rome I Regulation, that is to say, where all the elements relevant to the situation in question between the parties to a contract are located in a country other than the country whose law is chosen by those parties. Now, the Rome I Regulation does not ratione temporis apply to the facts at issue and on the similar provisions of the Rome Convention, the referring court is not entitled to ask questions. The CJEU therefore decides to simply reply to the question of this being a purely domestic contract, by reference to Article 16 of the insolvency Regulation only. It nevertheless however uses both Regulation and Convention a contrario. Both existed at the time of adoption of the Insolvency Regulation. The latter does not include an Article 3(3) type provision. That it does not, must, the Court held, mean that the Insolvency Regulation saw no need at all to limit the use of lex contractus for insulation reasons, even in the case of purely domestic contracts.

There is however one condition: Fraus (omnia corrumpit) aka abuse of (EU) law. Here, the Court refers to its findings last summer in C‑423/15 Kratzer. EU law cannot be relied on for abusive or fraudulent ends. A finding of abuse requires a combination of objective and subjective elements. First, with regard to the objective element, that finding requires that it must be apparent from a combination of objective circumstances that, despite formal observance of the conditions laid down by EU rules, the purpose of those rules has not been achieved. Second, such a finding requires a subjective element, namely that it must be apparent from a number of objective factors that the essential aim of the transactions concerned is to obtain an undue advantage.

Here, Article 16 may be disregarded only in a situation where it would appear objectively that the objective pursued by that application, in this context, of ensuring the legitimate expectation of the parties in the applicability of specific legislation, has not been achieved (a tough condition if the lex contractus is wisely chosen), and that the contract was made subject to the law of a specific Member State artificially, that is to say, with the primary aim, not of actually making that contract subject to the legislation of the chosen Member State, but of relying on the law of that Member State in order to exempt the contract, or the acts which took place in the performance of the contract, from the application of the lex fori concursus. In this respect (at 55), choice of law of a Member State other than the Member State in which parties are established does not create any presumption regarding an intention to circumvent the rules on insolvency for abusive or fraudulent ends.

The findings on fraus amount to strong support for a wide interpretation of the concept ‘international’ in EU private international law. (That an entirely Italian situation was made ‘international’ simply by choice of law ex-Italy was not considered an issue). A development to be applauded. These same findings also make it very difficult within the context of Article 13 (now 16) successfully to mount a challenge of payments detrimental to the collectivity. This aspect of the case is what i.a. Gilles Lindemans objects to in the judgment. However the CJEU logic I suppose lies in what it sees firmly as the object and purpose of Article 16: it protects the legitimate expectations of the party who has benefitted from an act detrimental to all the creditors. In some way it prevents contractual sclerosis for parties suspected of being close to payment issues. Securitisation is facilitated if the lex causae is fixed, independent of the lex concursus. Not just fraus (a very improbable route now) but probably more importantly the burden of proof per C-310/14 Nike, protects the collectivity.

Geert.

(Handbook of) EU private international law, 2nd ed. 2016, Chapter 5, Heading 5.7.1. Chapter 3, Heading 3.2.8.1.

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SMD v Banco Santander: the CJEU will either boost or bust European private international law.

Update 2 April 2017. The case unfortunately was removed from the register on 10 March last, for the SC has withdrawn its questions.

The title exaggerates. However the CJEU will have an opportunity in C-136/16 SMD v Banco Santander (referred by the Portuguese Supreme Court) to hold how ‘international’ a case has to be to trigger application of the European private international law Regulations. In both Owusu and Lindner the Court suggested a flexible approach to the ‘international’ character of a case (hence to the Regulations being easily engaged). The case referred is reminiscent of Banco Santander Totta at the High Court. In that case, however, jurisdiction was not contested and analysis focused on the reach of Article 3(3) Rome I (relating to ‘purely domestic contracts’).

I have copy/pasted the questions referred below. No doubt the CJEU will not entertain them all.

Crucial questions, are: is choice of court ex the country enough for the  case to be considered ‘international’; if it is, can forum non conveniens-type considerations lead to the (national) Court seized ignoring choice of court; if it is not, what other international elements need to be present and does choice of law play a role in this assessment.

Exciting. Once private international law engaged, literally the whole world opens up to contracting parties. If it is not, one is stuck with national law.

Geert.

(Handbook of) European Private International Law Chapter 2, Heading 2.2.2.1

 

In a dispute between two national undertakings of a Member State concerning agreements, does the fact that such agreements contain clauses conferring jurisdiction to another Member State constitute a sufficient international element to give rise to the application of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 1 and Regulation No 1215/2012 to determine international jurisdiction, or must there be other international elements?

May application of the jurisdiction agreement be waived where the choice of the courts of a Member State other than that of the nationality of the parties causes serious inconvenience for one of those parties and the other party has no good reason to justify such choice?

In the event that it is held that other international elements are necessary in addition to the jurisdiction agreement:

Do the swap agreements concluded between [Sociedade Metropolitana de Desenvolvimento, S.A.] (‘SMD’) and Banco Santander Totta have sufficient international elements to give rise to the application of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 and Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 in order to determine which courts have international jurisdiction to settle disputes relating to them where:

(a)    Those entities are nationals of a Member State, Portugal, that concluded two swap agreements in Portugal consisting of an ISDA Master Agreement and two confirmations, negotiated by the Autonomous Region of Madeira on behalf of SMD;

(b)    In that negotiation, the Autonomous Region of Madeira, assisted by Banco BPI, S.A., and by a law firm, invited more than one international bank to submit proposals, one of those invited banks being JP Morgan;

(c)    Banco Santander Totta is wholly owned by Banco Santander, with domicile in Spain;

(d)    Banco Santander Totta acted in its capacity as an international bank with subsidiaries in various Member States and under the single brand Santander;

(e)    Banco Santander Totta was considered in the ISDA Master Agreement as a Multibranch Party, able to make and receive payments in any transaction through its subsidiaries in London or Luxemburg;

(f)    Under the terms of the ISDA Master Agreement concluded, the parties may, in certain cases, transfer their rights and obligations to other representative offices or subsidiaries;

(g)    The parties to the swap agreements specified that English law was applicable and concluded jurisdiction agreements that confer exclusive jurisdiction on the English courts;

(h)    The agreements were drafted in English and the terminology and concepts used are Anglo-Saxon;

(i)    The swap agreements were concluded with the objective of covering the risk of variation in the interest rates of two financing agreements, both drafted in English and concluded with foreign entities (one based in the Netherlands and the other in Italy), and in one of the financing agreements it is provided that borrowers’ payments must be made to the HSBC Bank Plc account in London, on dates defined by reference to the London time zone and subject to English law and the English courts;

(j)    Banco Santander Totta acted as an intermediary of the international market, having concluded hedging agreements in the context of the international market?