The EU Court of Justice has announced that information about pesticides, their ingredients and their effects on the environment can no longer be hidden behind commercial confidentiality clauses and instead will have to be made available to public interest organisations.

The ruling was made last week in response to two separate cases, the first involving the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) and Greenpeace Netherlands, both of which were requesting information on embattled herbicide glyphosate, and another involving a Dutch bee-protection group and German pesticide manufacturer Bayer.

In the first case, the EU Commission (which has this year pushed for glyphosate relicensing in spite of significant opposition in the EU’s other legislative bodies) had been withholding documents from the campaign groups, citing commercial confidentiality. In October 2013, the EU’s General Court ruled against the commission and ordered the EU executive to share information, but the Commission appealed to the EU Court of Justice.  

In the second, bee protection group Bijenstichting and Bayer both objected to a 2013 decision by a Dutch court to release 35 of 84 documents on pesticides, which contained information on the products’ effects on the environment. The case was passed on to the European Court of Justice, which last week pronounced its judgement on what constitutes ‘emissions into the environment’.

The court decided that pesticides’ effects constitute 'emissions to the environment' and that they are therefore covered by provisions in EU law that mandate the release of information to concerned groups. It ruled that “The confidentiality of commercial and industrial information may not be invoked to preclude the disclosure of such information.”

More information on the ruling can be accessed here.

PAN UK welcomed the decision on Friday, stating that the Court’s ruling will make it much easier for campaigners to access information on pesticides and their impacts.