Corte di giustizia UE/2023

[OSCURATO:PERSONA]-[OSCURATO:PERSONA] 31 March 2023 ( * ) (Appeal – Interim relief – Public procurement – Confidentiality) [OSCURATO:PERSONA] C‑141/23 P(R), APPEAL under the second paragraph of Article 57 of the Statute of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA], brought on 8 March 2023, Telefónica de España SA, established in Madrid (Spain), represented by J. [OSCURATO:PERSONA] and F. [OSCURATO:PERSONA], abogados, and P. Stuart, Barrister, appellant, the other parties to the proceedings being: [OSCURATO:PERSONA], represented by L. André and M. Ilkova, acting as Agents, defendant at first instance, BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA] BV, established in Machelen ([OSCURATO:PERSONA]), intervener at first instance, [OSCURATO:PERSONA]-[OSCURATO:PERSONA], after hearing the [OSCURATO:PERSONA], M. Szpunar, makes the following [OSCURATO:PERSONA] 1 By its appeal, Telefónica de España SA asks the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice to set aside the order of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA]-[OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of 28 February 2023, Telefónica de España v [OSCURATO:PERSONA] (T‑170/22 R-RENV, not published, EU:T:2023:89), by which the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] dismissed its application seeking, first, suspension of the operation of the decision of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of 21 January 2022 relating to the call for tenders DIGIT/A 3/PR/2019/010, entitled ‘Trans-[OSCURATO:PERSONA] for Telematics between Administrations (TESTA)’, informing the appellant that its tender had not been successful in the procurement procedure and announcing the imminent signing of a contract with the successful tenderer and, secondly, an order requiring the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] to suspend the signing of that contract. 2 By document lodged at the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice on 14 March 2023, Telefónica de España requested that the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] treat as confidential, vis-à-vis BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA] BV, intervener at first instance, part of Annexes P.10 and P.11 to its appeal, which correspond to the observations submitted by the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] in [OSCURATO:PERSONA] T‑170/22 R and in [OSCURATO:PERSONA] C‑478/22 P(R)-R respectively. To that end, Telefónica de España produced a non-confidential version of those annexes. 3 In that regard, it should be noted that, by document lodged at the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] on 1 July 2022 in [OSCURATO:PERSONA] T‑170/22 R, Telefónica de España requested that the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] treat part of the procedural documents as confidential vis-à-vis BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA]. 4 By order of 14 December 2022, Telefónica de España v [OSCURATO:PERSONA] (T‑170/22 R-RENV, not published), the [OSCURATO:PERSONA]-[OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] decided to reserve his decision on that request for confidential treatment and to order, provisionally, the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] to serve, on BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA], the non-confidential version of each of the procedural documents served on the other parties. 5 In that context, it must be noted that Article 171(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice provides that the appeal is to be served on the other parties to the relevant case before the [OSCURATO:PERSONA]. Furthermore, pursuant to Article 172 of those rules, any party to the relevant case before the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] having an interest in the appeal being allowed or dismissed may submit a response within two months after service, on that party, of the appeal. It follows from those provisions that the appeal and the other procedural documents lodged before the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice are also to be served, in principle, on the parties granted leave to intervene before the [OSCURATO:PERSONA]. 6 However, where a party is requesting, vis-à-vis a party that intervened before the [OSCURATO:PERSONA], confidential treatment in respect of material produced before the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice which has already been treated as confidential vis-à-vis that same party in the proceedings at first instance, that same confidential treatment must, in principle, be maintained for the purposes of the proceedings before the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice (order of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice of 19 January 2023, Google and Alphabet v [OSCURATO:PERSONA] , C‑738/22 P, not published, EU:C:2023:44, paragraph 5 and the case-law cited). 7 Although, in the present case, the [OSCURATO:PERSONA]-[OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] did not give a definitive ruling on the request for confidential treatment made by Telefónica de España and referred to in paragraph 3 of the present order, the measures which he decided to adopt in his order of 14 December 2022, Telefónica de España v [OSCURATO:PERSONA] (T‑170/22 R-RENV, not published), in practice ensure, provisionally, that the elements in the file which are covered by that request are given confidential treatment which should, in principle, be maintained for the purposes of the proceedings before the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice. 8 It must be stated that the information in Annexes P.10 and P.11 to the appeal which, by way of the present request, Telefónica de España wishes to prevent being disclosed to BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA], forms part of the information covered by the request for confidential treatment made at first instance by Telefónica de España. 9 In addition, since Annex P.11 to the appeal corresponds to the [OSCURATO:PERSONA]’s observations lodged in [OSCURATO:PERSONA] C‑478/22 P(R)-R, it must be pointed out that, in accordance with the order of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA]-[OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] of Justice of 4 October 2022, Telefónica de España v [OSCURATO:PERSONA] (C‑478/22 P(R)-R, not published, EU:C:2022:802), only a non-confidential version of those observations was served on BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA] in the proceedings in that case. 10 In the light of the foregoing, it is necessary to grant Telefónica de España’s request that the information redacted in the non-confidential version of Annexes P.10 and P.11 to the appeal be treated as confidential vis-à-vis BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA], intervener at first instance. Accordingly, only the non-confidential version of those annexes shall be disclosed by the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] to BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA]. On those grounds, the [OSCURATO:PERSONA]-[OSCURATO:PERSONA] of the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] hereby orders: 1. The information redacted in the non-confidential version of Annexes P.10 and P.11 to the appeal, which were lodged at the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] by Telefónica de España SA on 14 March 2023, shall be treated as confidential vis-à-vis BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA] BV, and only that non-confidential version shall be required to be served by the [OSCURATO:PERSONA] on BT [OSCURATO:PERSONA]. 2. The costs are reserved. Luxembourg, 31 March 2023. A. [OSCURATO:PERSONA] L. [OSCURATO:PERSONA][OSCURATO:PERSONA] * Language of the case: English.