Court of Justice 10 September 2026, C-378/25 (Opinion of Advocate General Medina delivered on 10 September 2026.)

Also known as

In Case C-378/25, Advocate General Medina delivered an Opinion concluding that the prohibition in Article 5k of Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 against awarding public contracts to Russian nationals or entities established in or controlled from Russia does not apply to contracts with an estimated value below the thresholds set in Directive 2014/24/EU, even where national law requires the application of that directive's provisions. The Advocate General took the view that Article 5k does not preclude a national contracting authority from independently applying a similar exclusion under national law, nor does such a requirement breach EU principles of non-discrimination, equal treatment, or transparency in procedures presenting cross-border interest, provided it does not hinder EU restrictive measures. Furthermore, it is argued that the non-liability clause under Article 10 of Regulation No 833/2014 excludes a contracting authority's liability for erroneously applying the Article 5k prohibition where reasonable doubts existed regarding its scope and the authority acted in good faith.AI