On 8 July 2010, the European Court of Justice delivered its preliminary ruling in the case of Afton Chemical Limited v Secretary of State for Transport, which had been referred to it by the High Court of England and Wales. Afton Chemical Limited is the manufacturer of a metallic fuel additive known as MMT. It claimed that restrictions on the use of MMT and labelling requirements contained in Directive 2009/30/EC had been enacted as a result of a manifest error of assessment on the part of the European Parliament and Council, and that the procedural and substantive requirements of the precautionary principle were not met. It therefore applied for permission to make an application for judicial review of the legality of the UK government’s intention or obligation to implement Directive 2009/30. Afton claimed that there is no support for the imposition of those limits in the Commission’s conclusion as recorded in the impact assessment annexed to the proposal for a directive, and that the limits imposed are unworkable and arbitrary. The ECJ did not agree and upheld the disputed provisions.

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