Read the fictitious scenario below and answer the questions below in order to provide a legal analysis of the situation. Your answers should be based on legal arguments. Please bear in mind that the assignment does not require research on the facts included in the fictitious scenario:

The Portuguese company “Designer Custom Lanyards (DCL)” imports a wide selection of beaded and woven face-mask lanyards (straps to retain face masks) from Russia, where they are produced. DCL sells these lanyard together with color-matching medical-grade face masks to a Latvian supermarket chain “Ebia” , which offers it on its shelves. While the masks and the lanyards are sold together, the instructions on the transparent packaging of the masks is in Portuguese and in Russian for the lanyards. The Riga Police issues an order for Ebia to stop selling the masks and lanyards and a fine of 2 000 EUR. Several violations are listed – the lanyards produced in Russia would need to be subject to a safety check by Latvian authorities before being sold in Latvia, the masks count as personal protective equipment (PPE) and can only be sold in pharmacies, the instructions in a foreign language leave Latvian consumers without knowledge as to the medical properties of the product, the lack of Latvian instructions makes the tax classification of the offered products unclear, the Russian instructions might provide an undue benefit to the Russian-speaking minority in Latvia. The notice served to Ebia by the police indicates that further reasons can be provided upon request.

One of the co-owners of Ebia asks you for legal advice. She argues that the Latvian authorities are infringing EU law by not allowing Ebia to sell the masks and lanyards Your legal advice should include:

all the legal provisions that support Ebia’s claim (primary law, secondary law and case law where appropriate),

the possible defences the Latvian authorities may raise, and

counter-arguments for why these defences should not hold.

Mention any relevant case law.

Which market freedoms could be invoked? (3 points) max.300

Is there an interference with those freedoms? Is the measure adopted by Latvian authorities justified? Which legitimate aims can it pursue and is the adopted measure necessary and proportionate? (6 points) max. 600 words

Does Ebia have access to the Court of Justice of the EU in this dispute? Outline the potential procedural paths (1 point) max. 150 words

Execution:

Use this judicial examination method as to examine the violations of an EU market freedom as follows:

1- Scoop of application (personal, substantial, territorial)

2- (Existence of an) Interference with the market freedom

3- Justification?

Yes, if the measure interfering with the market freedom:

A. Pursues a legitimate aim

List of legitimate aims in the TFEU +case law

B. Is necessary to achieve the aim

C. Is proportionate

The assignment has a length of max. 1000 words;

Use Times New Roman, 11/12 , paragraph 1.5.;

Always include your name, student number, date and title of the course on the front page;

Use these sections of the Treaty on the function of the European Union (TFEU)  as references:

TFEU: Part three union policies and internal actions

Title I The internal market

Title II Free movement of goods

Chapter 1 The customs union

Chapter 2 Customs cooperation

Chapter 3 Prohibition of Quantitative restrictions between member states

Title IV Free movements of persons, services and capital

Chapter 1 Workers

Chapter 2 Right of establishment

Chapter 3 Services

Chapter 4 Capital and Payments