Simont Braun is proud to represent the European Commission and the 27 Member States in the judicial proceedings against AstraZeneca for the delays in supplying millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses. (see our previous press release here).
Today, Simont Braun is pleading before the French-speaking court of first instance of Brussels in the emergency proceedings. In this type of procedure, the court may issue injunctions to the defendant if the court finds these injunctions to be urgent following a preliminary assessment of the case.
In a nutshell, the European Commission requests AstraZeneca to accelerate the vaccines supply to reach the amount of doses determined by the contract concluded between the parties.
If the court confirms the EU’s position, AstraZeneca would be ordered to supply 90 million doses by the end of Q2. This would bring the total number of deliveries to 120 million doses as AstraZeneca already delivered 30 million doses by the end of March.
It would also represent 20 million extra doses compared to what AstraZeneca is offering.
By the end of Q3, the EU requests the contract performance in full, i.e. the supply of 180 million extra doses. This would bring the total number of doses to 300 million, as per the contract concluded by the parties.
Depending on the arguments of the parties and the questions of the court, a second round of the hearing may take place on Friday. The court will then make its decision in the following weeks.
We will keep you posted!
The Simont Braun team which advises the European Commission is led by partner Rafaël Jafferali and composed of Paul Alain Foriers (partner), Fanny Laune (counsel), Charles-Edouard Lambert and Marie Nelles (associates).
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For any question, please contact Rafaël Jafferali
rj@simontbraun.eu – +32 (0)2 533 17 62
