Judgment_paragraph 77 · London Steam-Ship Owners’ Mutual Insurance Association Limited v Kingdom of Spain (C-700/20)

77In any event, according to the case-law of the Court, Article 34(1) of Regulation No 44/2001 must be interpreted strictly inasmuch as it constitutes an obstacle to the attainment of one of the fundamental objectives of that regulation. It may therefore be relied upon only in exceptional cases (judgment of 25 May 2016, Meroni, C‑559/14, EU:C:2016:349, paragraph 38 and the case-law cited).