The court issued a judgement last week on the long-running Bavarian Lager Case, ruling that the European Commission should have identified attendees of an antitrust meeting.
The decision means that the commission will no longer be able to justify withholding the names of individual lobbyists who communicate opinions or information to it by referring to European data privacy protection rules.
‘Public authorities should disclose information that is in the public’s best interest,’ said Weber Shandwick chairman of public affairs Jon McLeod.
The ruling centred on a now-closed competition inquiry into a large number of British bars that were ‘forced’ to buy beer from certain breweries.
