The Malamud case: the internal market remains in troubled waters

Carl Malamud, an American internet activist, with the NGOs Public.Resource. Org, Inc. and Right to Know CLG (from here on abbreviated as Malamud), sued the COM after it refused to grant them free access to four hENs via the Access to Documents Regulation (1049/2001). The ECJ has now ruled in the last instance (C-588/21 P).  

Bitkom welcomes the fact that the Chamber's decision primarily refers to the four requested hENs and therefore does not represent a fundamental judgement on the standardisation system. It is of particular importance that copyright was not called into question here and that the PPP for the creation of standards is still intact. We also welcome the fact that it has once again been clearly emphasised how important hENs are for the European economy, that they are in principle not binding and that they only have a legal effect via the presumption of conformity.  

Irrespective of this judgement, but central to this context, the hurdles to the effective review and listing of hENs in the OJEU should be removed, as these have proven to be a bottleneck in the creation of hENs. It must be a common concern of the interested parties in standardisation and the COM that a standard can be listed promptly as soon as it is finalised.