On Wednesday 15 January, the General Court of the European Union upheld the restrictive measures adopted by the EU against MegaFon, one of Russia’s leading mobile phone and telecommunications operators, ruling that its inclusion and retention on the lists of entities subject to the restrictive measures were well founded.
In February 2023, judging that MegaFon was providing direct support to Russia’s military and industrial complex in its war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU Council sanctioned it. These restrictive measures were extended in July 2023 and January 2024.
MegaFon brought an action before the General Court seeking an annulment of the EU Council’s measures, arguing that they lacked reasoning and were vitiated by an error of assessment, violated its rights of defence and infringed the principle of proportionality.
The General Court dismissed the action in its entirety. In its view, the EU Council has properly set out the specific and concrete reasons for its decision to sanction MegaFon. The General Court also dismissed the arguments on the violation of MegaFon’s rights of defence, explaining that the EU Council was not required to hear MegaFon before taking the measures.
Furthermore, in its view, the EU Council did not commit an error of assessment in including and maintaining MegaFon on the lists in question. And while the measures restrict MegaFon’s freedom of enterprise and affect its reputation, they do not constitute a disproportionate and intolerable intervention, in its view.
See the judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/f1h (in French) (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)