Rivolution v Cilag & Ethicon (UPC_CoA_737/2025)

• Cliag and Ethicon applied to the Munich LD for an order of provisional measures (preliminary injunction). The Munich LD granted the preliminary injunction. Rivolution appealed the decision, although the reasons for the decision were not yet available.
• Rivolution had applied for suspensive effect of the Munich LD's decision under Article 74 UPCA and Rule 223.1 RoP until the Court of Appeal's decision on the substantive appeal. The Court of Appeal rejected the request. The Court of Appeal can only grant a request for suspensive effect if the circumstances of the case justify an exception to the principle that an appeal has no suspensive effect. Therefore, the court must examine whether the appellant's interest in maintaining the status quo until the decision on its appeal outweighs the interest of the respondent. Suspensive effect may be ordered if the order being appealed is "manifestly erroneous" or the enforcement of the contested decision would render the appeal "largely irrelevant".
• According to Rule 223.2 RoP, an application for suspensive effect must also contain: (a) the reasons why there should be suspensive effect; and, (b) the facts, evidence and legal submissions relied upon. This means that such an application must, on its own, enable the Court of Appeal to decide on it, if necessary even without further information.
• As the reasons were not yet available, no evident error in the decision could be established. The Court of Appeal explained that if the reasons for the decision are not available, accepting that the decision contains an obvious error will only be considered where the error can be spotted without knowledge of the reasons. The Court of Appeal gave the example where the operative part of the decision results in a legal consequence that does not arise from either the UPCA or the RoP.
• In this case, it was not possible to determine whether the Munich LD misapplied the urgency requirements or the weighing of interests without knowing the reasons for the decision.

This analysis is based on a machine translation of a decision not available in English.