On 1 April 2023, significant amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the General Court of the EU came into force. Their aim is to clarify, supplement, and simplify provisions. In addition to the revised Rules of Procedure, the General Court also amended its Practice Rules for the Implementation of its Rules of Procedure.

Now that the General Court has adopted a legal and technical framework for this purpose, videoconferencing can be used for hearings. The newly created document "Practical recommendations for representatives making oral submissions by videoconference" further assists parties’ representatives in this regard. Additionally, the rules now allow for judgements and orders of the General Court to be signed electronically. The rules specify the terms for the qualified electronic signature and the rules for long-term secure storage of original electronic versions of these documents.

In the context of proactive case management, the new rules also offer new guarantees for so-called pilot cases (i.e. in pending cases raising the same issue of law, one of these cases is to be identified as the pilot case and the others are stayed). This means the pilot case will be given priority over stayed cases, which will be heard once they are resumed. Furthermore, the General Court may now organise joint hearings of two or more cases when there are similarities between them, irrespective of whether the conditions for joinder are met or not.

In the area of data protection, the Rules of Procedure now clearly distinguish between the processing of personal data of natural persons and the processing of data that is not personal data. Lastly, the General Court has introduced a new document (Provision of indicative model applications) to assist parties’ representatives in preparing their actions, and it has updated the following documents for parties’ representatives:

• Aide-mémoire – Application;
• Model summary of the pleas in law and main arguments relied on in the application;
• Aide-mémoire – Hearing of oral argument;
• Omission of data vis-à-vis the public in judicial proceedings.