THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 1048/18
Bulgarian National Radio
against Bulgaria
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 27 June 2024 as a Committee composed of:
Peeter Roosma, President,
Andreas Zünd,
Oddny Mjöll Arnardôttir, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 20 December 2017,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant is the Bulgarian National Radio (“BNR”), which is Bulgaria’s national radio-broadcasting organisation. It was represented before the Court by Mr I. Stoynev, a lawyer practising in Sofia.
In May 2023 the Bulgarian Government were given notice of BNR’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning an allegedly unjustified and arbitrary refusal by the Sofia City Court, whose decision had been upheld on appeal by the Sofia Court of Appeal, to examine a claim for damages which BNR had brought against Musicautor (an organisation for the collective management of copyrights) in respect of an alleged abuse of dominant market position.
On 19 January 2024 the Bulgarian Government submitted their observations on the admissibility and merits of those complaints. On 24 January 2024 those observations were forwarded to BNR’s lawyer via the Court’s electronic communication service (“eComms”), and he was invited to submit observations in reply on behalf of BNR, together with any claim for just satisfaction.
BNR’s lawyer downloaded the Government’s observations from eComms on 24 January 2024 along with all of their annexes and with the Court’s letter inviting him to submit observations in reply. He did not file such observations or a claim for just satisfaction on behalf of BNR within the time-limit fixed for that purpose: 5 March 2024. Nor did he seek an extension of that time-limit.
In a letter dated 14 March 2024, sent to BNR’s lawyer via eComms, he was warned that the time-limit for submission of BNR’s observations and of any claim for just satisfaction had expired and that no extension of time had been requested, and his attention was drawn to the terms of Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention. BNR’s lawyer did not download that letter from eComms. His latest login to eComms dates from 24 January 2024, when the Government’s observations were forwarded to him.
THE LAW
In the light of the above developments, and of the terms of Rule 37 § 1 of the Rules of Court, according to which “communications or notifications addressed to the ... advocates of the parties shall be deemed to have been addressed to the parties”, and of paragraph 1 of the Practice Direction on Electronic Filing by Applicants, according to which “after the communication of a case, applicants who have opted to file pleadings electronically ... shall accept written communications sent to them by the Registry of the Court by means of eComms”, BNR may be regarded as no longer intending to pursue the application within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention.
There are, furthermore, no special circumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto which require the continued examination of the application (Article 37 § 1 in fine).
Accordingly, the application is to be struck out of the Court’s list of cases.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.
Done in English and notified in writing on 18 July 2024.
Viktoriya Maradudina Peeter Roosma
Acting Deputy Registrar President