The EU court made a quick rejection on DuPont's application on methomyl

The EU Court of First Instance has rejected DuPont's application for a suspension of the EU phase-out procedure for the insecticide, methomyl. DuPont had asked for the interim measure to be imposed until the Court decides on its main lawsuit seeking an annulment of the European Commission's decision not to re-register the active ingredient. DuPont claims that the re-registration decision was based on an incomplete risk assessment.

The original Commission decision requires EU member states to withdraw approvals of methomyl-based products by March 19th 2008, but allows a period of grace for the use of stocks up to March 19th 2009. In a March 14th order, the President of the Court dismissed DuPont's claim that the suspension was needed urgently to prevent serious and irreparable damage due to loss of market share to other companies with alternative products. The damage claimed constituted less than 1% of the annual turnover of the DuPont group as a whole, the President said. While DuPont's recapture of lost market share might be "quite onerous" financially and economically, the evidence indicated that it "does not appear impossible", the President added.

At the end of 2007, the Court of First Instance also rejected other requests for interim suspensions of phase-out procedures in similar cases concerning EU re-registration decisions. The decisions are being contested by: Dow AgroSciences for the herbicide, haloxyfop-R; Cheminova for the insecticide/acaricide, malathion; and FMC for the insecticide/nematicides, carbosulfan and carbofuran.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Sumitomo Chemical failed in its appeal to the EU Court of Justice to overturn the Court of First Instance's rejection of interim measures for the fungicide, procymidone. Sumitomo's main case is contesting the Commission's decision to impose restrictions on the re-registration of procymidone, which limit its approval period to just 18 months and its use to cucumbers in greenhouses and plums for processing.