EU General Court Rejects Challenge to Import Ban on Russian Mica Products

The EU General Court last week rejected a challenge from Belgium and Czech Republic-based company Cogebi to EU import restrictions on Russian-made mica products. The court said that the European Council had laid out sufficient reasons for barring the import of mica products in that the council appropriately found the sale of mica products to "generate significant revenues for the Russian Federation."

Mica is a group of minerals used in a variety of products, including the industrial products made by Cogebi, which include fire resistant cable tapes and aircraft insulation blankets. Russian mica products were barred from import as part of the EU's eighth sanctions package against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, imposed in October 2022.

The European Council claimed that Cogebi lacked standing to sue since it's "not directly affected or individually concerned by the contested provision." The court rejected this claim, allowing the suit to proceed since the contested act is a legal one and not a legislative one.

The decision said that the "contested provision not only has an impact on the applicants’ substantive situation; it also amounts to a prohibition of a legal nature directly affecting one of the activities which the applicants carried out on the date of adoption of the contested provision."

But the court sustained the import ban, finding that if the council imposes restrictions on goods for "generating significant revenues for Russia," as was the case here, the council "was not required to set out in further detail the reasons for its decision" or hear from Cogebi before adopting the restrictions.

The court added that the council didn't violate the principle of proportionality or the freedom to conduct a business. The decision said that despite 99% of Cogebi's business depending on Russian mica products, "it has not been demonstrated that it is impossible for the applicants to purchase mica products similar to those which they imported from Russia in 2022 from other EU or third-country operators."