On February 9, the Court of Justice of the European Union made public its January 28, 2015 order rejecting the appeal of Mr. Romano Pisciotti, an Italian national who was extradited from Germany to the United States in April 2014 for his role in the marine hose price-fixing conspiracy.
On July 2, 2014, the General Court of the European Union rejected Pisciotti’s appeal as manifestly inadmissible because, under Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, individuals do not have power to appeal European Commission’s decisions to not start infringement proceedings. Pisciotti had appealed the European Commission’s April 11, 2014 decision rejecting his complaint against Germany for having granted the extradition to the United States, allegedly in breach of EU law on the freedom to provide services.
Mr. Pisciotti is the first foreign national to be successfully extradited to the United States for a price-fixing violation.
