Ministry's liability in damages

Case no. 42/2016
Order made on 7 October 2016

CO-industri acting for A
vs.
The Ministry of Employment

In this case, CO-industri (Central Organisation of Industrial Employees in Denmark) claimed that the Ministry of Employment was liable in damages towards employee A, because Denmark had not implemented the right to a replacement holiday foreseen in Article 7 of the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC). In that connection, CO-industri requested that questions be referred for a preliminary ruling to the EU Court of Justice.

The EU Court of Justice has already considered questions regarding member states' liability in a number of judgments. Against this background, the Supreme Court's preliminary assessment was that there was no reasonable doubt as to the conditions governing a member state's liability in damages for failure to observe EU law that justified referring further questions to the EU Court of Justice before the Supreme Court could consider the claims made by CO-industri before the Supreme Court.

Consequently, the request for reference of questions to the EU Court of Justice was not granted.