"Taking into consideration the fact that it is not the aim of Article 4(3)(b) of that regulation either to establish a freezing of assets or restrictions on the transfer of funds, the Court must hold that if the European Union legislature had intended that the processing of any bank transfer related to the products referred to in Annex II to Regulation No 833/2014 should be subject to a request for a further authorisation in addition to that required under Article 3 of Regulation No 833/2014 for a transaction of the kind mentioned in the preceding paragraph of the present judgment, it would have used an expression other than ‘financial assistance’ in order to establish and define such an obligation," the court ruling reads.
At the same time, the court found that the restrictive measures adopted by the EU Council against the company were valid.
Hearings on Rosneft's October 2014 lawsuit against the European Council began in February 2016. The Russian company indicated that the Council failed to provide sufficient evidence for its actions, violating the right to judicial protection, by imposing sanctions against Rosneft and three of its subsidiaries in July 2014.
