I have a great interest in claim formulation as a means to forum shop as both my clients and my students know. Despite the post being way behind my signalling of the case on Twitter /X, I do want briefly to flag X v Horsedeals BV et al ECLI:NL:RBOVE:2023:3987 for it shows the limits to what one can do with creative claim formulation. Claimant claims to be the owner of various shipments of stud sperm and aims to obtain various injunctions for (re)sale etc of the shipments, as well as a block on the enforcement of a French judgment in which it was ordered to provide relevant information. All of this is related to allegations of fraud in the horse market. The judge holds that the claim for negative declaration in tort against a France-domiciled defendant is in reality a claim for ownership of the sperm at issue for which there is no A7(2) gateway in The Netherlands. Similarly the court holds that alleged future damage following the enforcement of a French judgment cannot ground an A7(2) claim to halt that enforcement in light of Title III Brussels Ia.
Geert.