After the deadline for appeal to a July ruling lapsed, the General Court of the European Union has once again ordered that the block immediately lift all sanctions on the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).
NITC is the largest oil tanker company in Iran, and successfully challenged EU sanctions on the grounds that they are a private company owned by a privately-run pension company, not a state-run entity covered by sanctions on the Iranian government.
The court gave the EU 90 days to appeal, which they insisted they planned on doing, but which they never actually did. Despite this, EU officials insist they will continue to try to find ways to keep NITC on the blacklist.
Doing so seems like it’s going to be difficult, however, with the company having already decisively won their court challenge. The missing of the appeal deadline does not appear to have been an oversight, either, but rather a reflection of the lack of any basis to appeal.
