A few weeks ago, (27 February 2025), the Court of Justice – asked by the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) to interpret Art 25(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 – delivered its judgment on the case No C-537/23, Società Italiana Lastre SpA (SIL) v. Agora SARL.
The request for preliminary ruling concerns the validity of an asymmetric jurisdictional clause included in a contract for the supply of panelling concluded between Agora and SIL.
In the decision, the Court of Justice stated that Art 25 of Regulation No 1215/2012 must be interpreted as meaning that “in the context of assessing the validity of an agreement conferring jurisdiction, complaints alleging the imprecision or asymmetry of that agreement must be examined not in the light of criteria relating to matters which cause that agreement to be ‘null and void as to its substantive validity’ defined by the law of the Member States in accordance with that provision, but in the light of autonomous criteria which are derived from that article”. Moreover, “an agreement conferring jurisdiction pursuant to which one of the parties thereto may only bring proceedings before the sole court that it designates whereas it permits the other party to bring proceedings before, in addition to that court, any other competent court, is valid, in so far as, first, it designates courts of one or several States which are either Members of the European Union or parties to the [Lugano II Convention], secondly, it identifies objective factors which are sufficiently precise to enable the court seised to ascertain whether it has jurisdiction, and, thirdly, it is not contrary to the provisions of Articles 15, 19 or 23 of that regulation and does not derogate from an exclusive jurisdiction pursuant to Article 24 thereof.
On choice-of-courts agreements, the readers of RDIPP may refer to:
Riccardo Rossi, 2023, No 3, 579 ff.;
Gaetano Vitellino, 2019, No 4, 999 ff.;
Francesca C. Villata, 2015, No 4, 973 ff.;
Marco Lopez de Gonzalo and Andrea La Mattina, 2012, No 1, 87 ff.;
Silvia Marino, 2010, No 4, 915 ff.;
Gianluca Contaldi, 1998, No 1, 79 ff.;
Ilaria Queirolo, 1997, No 3, p. 601 ff.
Moreover, see, in our Book Series:
Ilaria Queirolo, Book No 51;
Fausto Pocar, Ilaria Viarengo, Francesca C. Villata (eds.), Book No 76;
Francesca C. Villata, Book No 77;
Franco Ferrari, Francesca ragno (eds.), Book No 80.