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In today’s landmark judgments concerning the imposition of sanctions by the EU (cases T-301/22 and T-304/22), the top EU court has annulled the decisions of the Council of the European Union to impose sanctions on Russian businessmen Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman.
Thierry Marembert and Aaron Bass of Kiejman & Marembert (Paris), who conducted the proceedings in Europe in collaboration with Roger Gherson of Gherson Solicitors LLP (London), have achieved a remarkable outcome. They collated a body of compelling evidence to demonstrate that the material relied upon by the Council of the European Union was inaccurate and wholly insufficient to justify their inclusion on the EU sanctions list.
The EU’s General Court concluded that the grounds for designation relied upon by the EU Council against Messrs Aven and Fridman, specifically that they had (i) supported actions or policies that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine; and (ii) provided material or financial support to the Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the destabilisation of Ukraine, or had benefited from those decision-makers, were simply not made out on the facts.
This result is a rare victory in the field of sanctions law and highlights the benefits of collaboration between EU and UK teams of internationally recognised lawyers with expertise on economic sanctions matters and experience spanning multiple jurisdictions and areas of law.
Although Messrs Aven and Fridman remain on the EU sanctions list, by virtue of designations imposed after March 2023 (these later designations are the subject of additional challenges), these decisions are an important signal to the Council of the European Union that sanctions mechanisms must be transparently operated and that sanctions designations must be firmly rooted in the facts and be properly justified.