Judgment_paragraph 35 · Falke KGaA v European Commission (T-306/21)

35According to settled case-law, the legal acts of the European Union are presumed to be lawful, and they therefore produce legal effects until such time as they are withdrawn, annulled in an action for annulment or declared invalid following a reference for a preliminary ruling or a plea of illegality or unless they have been the subject of a suspension of implementation or other interim measures imposed by the Courts of the European Union under Articles 278 and 279 TFEU (see, to that effect, judgments of 14 June 2012, CIVAD, C‑533/10, EU:C:2012:347, paragraph 39 and the case-law cited, and of 2 April 2020, Commission v Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic (Temporary mechanism for the relocation of applicants for international protection), C‑715/17, C‑718/17 and C‑719/17, EU:C:2020:257, paragraph 140). Observance of that presumption of legality may prevent an examination of the merits of a decision that constitutes the mere application of a measure of general application where the validity of that measure has not been challenged (see, to that effect, judgments of 21 December 2021, P. Krücken Organic v Commission, C‑586/20 P, not published, EU:C:2021:1046, paragraph 69, and of 2 February 2012, Hellenic Republic v Commission, T‑469/09, not published, EU:T:2012:50, paragraph 57). Only acts of EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies that are final and have legal effect vis-à-vis third parties and that may be the subject of an action for annulment thus benefit from that presumption. That is not the case for an act where the Commission adopts rules of conduct for the purpose of limiting the exercise of its own discretion.