Europe’s Corporate Law Hotspots: CJEU Preliminary References, 2010–2025

Which national courts referred EU company-law and financial-regulation questions to the Court of Justice — and on what issues? 80 judgments, 22 member states, 27 of 52 screened instruments.

The visualisation covers Court of Justice judgments on preliminary references, dated 2010–2025, that EUR‑Lex/Cellar identifies as interpreting one of 52 selected EU company‑law and financial‑markets instruments. Of those instruments, 27 produced at least one qualifying judgment and 25 produced none. Important Treaty‑based corporate‑mobility cases fall outside the dataset unless they also interpret a selected instrument. Clear metadata false positives identified through legal verification were excluded. Data extracted on 5 June 2026; judgments counted through 31 December 2025.
Analysis: Prof. Marco Ventoruzzo (Bocconi University) · Visualisation: ECGI

Preliminary-reference judgments per year, 2010–2025

No clear causal timeline pattern is evident from the data alone. — 2017 (10 judgments): includes four concerning the Parent‑Subsidiary Directive and two concerning MiFID I. — 2022 (10 judgments): spread across BRRD, market abuse, investment funds, group taxation, accounting and SE law.

View data table — Timeline

Year	Total	Company law	Capital markets
2010	3	3	0
2011	2	1	1
2012	5	3	2
2013	4	2	2
2014	5	0	5
2015	4	1	3
2016	4	3	1
2017	10	8	2
2018	5	1	4
2019	5	2	3
2020	4	3	1
2021	5	3	3 *
2022	10	4	6
2023	2	1	1
2024	7	3	4
2025	5	1	4
Total	80	38	43 *

* In 2021, one judgment interprets instruments from both areas; it is counted once in the total but contributes to both the company law and capital markets subtotals. Area subtotals therefore sum to 81.

Raw count Per trillion USD GDP

Preliminary-reference judgments by referring member state, 2010–2025

Each bar is split by legal area: company law (dark) and capital markets (blue). Countries ordered by total. Hover for the exact breakdown. Source: EUR‑Lex/Cellar; legal verification by Prof. Marco Ventoruzzo, Bocconi University.

View data table — By Country (raw count)

Member state	Company law	Capital markets	Total
Belgium	7	3	10
Italy	6	4	10
France	5	4	9
Germany	3	5	8
Spain	1	6	7
Austria	3	2	5
Hungary	2	2	4
Netherlands	1	3	4
Portugal	2	2	4
Slovenia	3	0	3
Bulgaria	1	1	2
Czechia	0	2	2
Poland	0	2	2
Romania	0	2	2
Denmark	0	1	1
Finland	1	0	1
Greece	1	0	1
Ireland	1	0	1
Latvia	1	0	1
Lithuania	0	1	1
Luxembourg	0	1	1
Sweden	0	1	1

Note on the United Kingdom: EUR‑Lex/Cellar attributes one judgment (C‑247/20, VI v Commissioners for HMRC) to MiFID I. Legal verification confirms this case concerns Article 21 TFEU and Directive 2004/38/EC and is not a MiFID I case. It has been recorded as a documented manual exclusion. The United Kingdom therefore does not appear in the headline figures.

Preliminary-reference judgments by instrument, 2010–2025

27 of 52 screened instruments produced at least one qualifying judgment in 2010–2025. A single judgment may interpret more than one instrument; instrument counts therefore sum to more than 80. Source: EUR‑Lex/Cellar; legal verification by Prof. Marco Ventoruzzo.

View data table — By Instrument

Instrument	Area	Issue	Judgments
MiFID I	Capital markets	Investment services	14
Parent-Subsidiary Directive	Company law	Group taxation	9
BRRD	Capital markets	Bank recovery and resolution	8
Merger Tax Directive	Company law	Restructuring tax	7
Market Abuse Directive	Capital markets	Market abuse	6
Takeover Bids Directive	Company law	Takeovers	5
Prospectus Directive	Capital markets	Prospectus	4
UCITS Directive	Capital markets	Investment funds	4
Fourth Company Law Directive	Company law	Accounts and reporting	3
Market Abuse Regulation	Capital markets	Market abuse	3
AIFMD	Capital markets	Investment funds	2
Capital Maintenance Directive	Company law	Capital maintenance	2
First Company Law Directive	Company law	Formation, disclosure, validity	2
SE Employee Involvement Directive	Company law	European company form	2
Sixth Company Law Directive	Company law	Divisions	2
Third Company Law Directive	Company law	Mergers	2
UCITS IV Directive	Capital markets	Investment funds	2
Accounting Directive	Company law	Accounts and reporting	1
Company Law Directive	Company law	Company law codification	1
Company Law Disclosure Directive	Company law	Disclosure and registers	1
ESMA Regulation	Capital markets	Supervision	1
Eleventh Company Law Directive	Company law	Branches and disclosure	1
MiFID II	Capital markets	Investment services	1
Second Company Law Directive	Company law	Capital maintenance	1
Societas Europaea Regulation	Company law	European company form	1
Statutory Audit Directive	Company law	Audit	1
Transparency Directive	Capital markets	Issuer disclosure	1

Preliminary-reference judgments by issue area, 2010–2025

Issue-area counts follow the same instrument-based logic: a judgment interpreting more than one instrument may contribute to more than one issue area. Counts therefore sum to more than 80. Source: EUR‑Lex/Cellar; legal verification by Prof. Marco Ventoruzzo.

View data table — By Issue Area

Issue area	Legal area	Judgments
Investment services	Capital markets	15
Group taxation	Company law	9
Bank recovery and resolution	Capital markets	8
Investment funds	Capital markets	7
Market abuse	Capital markets	7
Restructuring tax	Company law	7
Takeovers	Company law	5
Prospectus	Capital markets	4
Accounts and reporting	Company law	4
Capital maintenance	Company law	3
Divisions	Company law	2
European company form	Company law	2
Formation, disclosure, validity	Company law	2
Mergers	Company law	2
Issuer disclosure	Capital markets	1
Supervision	Capital markets	1
Audit	Company law	1
Branches and disclosure	Company law	1
Company law codification	Company law	1
Disclosure and registers	Company law	1

Instrument perimeter — all 52 screened instruments

The perimeter contains 52 selected instruments. “Qualifying judgment found, 2010–2025” indicates whether EUR‑Lex/Cellar links at least one judgment in the period to that instrument after legal verification. Instruments with no qualifying judgment in 2010–2025 were not conceptually excluded from the scope; they were screened and found no match under the stated procedure, period, and metadata filter.

Instrument	Area	Issue	Qualifying judgment found, 2010–2025
First Company Law Directive	Company law	Formation, disclosure, validity	Yes
Second Company Law Directive	Company law	Capital maintenance	Yes
Third Company Law Directive	Company law	Mergers	Yes
Fourth Company Law Directive	Company law	Accounts and reporting	Yes
Sixth Company Law Directive	Company law	Divisions	Yes
Eleventh Company Law Directive	Company law	Branches and disclosure	Yes
Twelfth Company Law Directive	Company law	Single-member companies	No
Directive amending the Second Company Law Directive	Company law	Capital maintenance	No
Investment Services Directive	Capital markets	Investment services	No
Insider Dealing Directive	Capital markets	Market abuse	No
Merger Tax Directive	Company law	Restructuring tax	Yes
Parent-Subsidiary Directive	Company law	Group taxation	Yes
SE Employee Involvement Directive	Company law	European company form	Yes
Societas Europaea Regulation	Company law	European company form	Yes
Market Abuse Directive	Capital markets	Market abuse	Yes
Company disclosure modernisation Directive	Company law	Disclosure and registers	No
Prospectus Directive	Capital markets	Prospectus	Yes
Takeover Bids Directive	Company law	Takeovers	Yes
MiFID I	Capital markets	Investment services	Yes
Transparency Directive	Capital markets	Issuer disclosure	Yes
Cross-Border Mergers Directive	Company law	Cross-border mobility	No
Statutory Audit Directive	Company law	Audit	Yes
Accounts and governance disclosure Directive	Company law	Accounts and reporting	No
Shareholder Rights Directive	Company law	Shareholder rights	No
UCITS IV Directive	Capital markets	Investment funds	Yes
Company Law Disclosure Directive	Company law	Disclosure and registers	Yes
ESMA Regulation	Capital markets	Supervision	Yes
Mergers of public limited liability companies Directive	Company law	Mergers	No
AIFMD	Capital markets	Investment funds	Yes
Capital Maintenance Directive	Company law	Capital maintenance	Yes
Short Selling Regulation	Capital markets	Short selling	No
EMIR	Capital markets	Derivatives and clearing	No
Accounting Directive	Company law	Accounts and reporting	Yes
Criminal Sanctions for Market Abuse Directive	Capital markets	Market abuse	No
BRRD	Capital markets	Bank recovery and resolution	Yes
MiFID II	Capital markets	Investment services	Yes
Market Abuse Regulation	Capital markets	Market abuse	Yes
MiFIR	Capital markets	Investment services	No
SFTR	Capital markets	Securities financing	No
IORP II Directive	Capital markets	Pensions / institutional investors	No
Benchmarks Regulation	Capital markets	Benchmarks	No
Company Law Directive	Company law	Company law codification	Yes
Prospectus Regulation	Capital markets	Prospectus	No
Securitisation Regulation	Capital markets	Securitisation	No
Investment Firms Directive	Capital markets	Investment firms	No
Mobility Directive	Company law	Cross-border mobility	No
Investment Firms Regulation	Capital markets	Investment firms	No
Crowdfunding Regulation	Capital markets	Crowdfunding	No
Women on Boards Directive	Company law	Board composition	No
MiCA	Capital markets	Crypto-assets	No
UCITS Directive	Capital markets	Investment funds	Yes
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive	Company law	Sustainability due diligence	No

The Insider Dealing Directive (1989) and UCITS Directive (1985) produced qualifying judgments in earlier periods (pre-2010) but no judgments in the 2010–2025 scope of this visualisation. They are shown as “No” above consistent with the relabelled column heading “Qualifying judgment found, 2010–2025”.

Key observations

80 judgments over 15 years

22 member states

Across 2010–2025, 80 preliminary-reference judgments were handed down by the Court of Justice on EU company law and financial regulation, drawn from courts in 22 member states. No consistent upward or downward trend is evident over the period.

Belgium and Italy lead

10 each — 25% of total

Belgium and Italy are jointly the most active referring states, each contributing 10 judgments and together accounting for one quarter of all preliminary references in the dataset. France (9) and Germany (8) follow closely.

MiFID I most litigated

14 judgments

MiFID I (Directive 2004/39/EC on markets in financial instruments) generated 14 judgments — more than any other single instrument in the dataset — followed by the Parent‑Subsidiary Directive (9) and BRRD (8).

27 of 52 instruments produced cases

25 produced none

Of the 52 instruments in the screened perimeter, 27 produced at least one qualifying judgment in 2010–2025. The 25 that produced none include the Shareholder Rights Directive, the Cross‑Border Mergers Directive and the Women on Boards Directive — all of which were screened but yielded no matching preliminary reference in the period covered.