UPC CoA 320/2023

The Court of Appeal (German language version) addressed the date of service of the Statement of claim and term extensions. The Court held: (1) A Statement of claim can be validly served even if annexes are not simultaneously uploaded, provided the statement alone enables the defendant to assert its rights. (2) If a claimant fails to upload annexes simultaneously with the Statement of claim contrary to R.13.2 RoP, this in itself constitutes sufficient grounds for a defendant's request for term extension (without regard to the nature or content of the annexes). (3) The extension must compensate for the period during which the annexes were unavailable. This is a duplicate/German language version of the same decision published in English (see final-order-appeal-572929-eng_0.pdf).

The Court of Appeal (English language version) ruled on the date of service of the Statement of claim and term extensions for preliminary objection and statement of defence. Key holdings: (1) A Statement of claim can be validly served even without annexes, provided it enables the defendant to assert rights before the UPC courts. (2) Non-simultaneous upload of annexes contrary to R.13.2 RoP is itself sufficient for a defendant to request term extension, regardless of the content of the annexes. (3) The extension should equal the period during which annexes were unavailable after service. This is the English version of the same decision (see final-order-appeal-572929-002.pdf for German version).