Despite the fact that the Court of Justice of the EU has previously held that the German legislation setting minimum rates for fees for services provided by architects and engineers (the HOAI) is contrary to the Services Directive, a national court, when hearing a dispute between private individuals, is not required, solely on the basis of EU law, to disapply that German legislation: a judgment to that effect was handed down by the Court of Justice on Tuesday 18 January (Case C-261/20).
The...