Court of Justice applies 'polluter pays' principle

The Court of Justice has ruled that operators with installations located close to a polluted area may be deemed liable for the pollution. The ruling, which came on 09 March, confirms that national authorities are entitled to operate on the presumption that there is a causal link between operators and the pollution found on account of the proximity of their installations with the polluted area. The court considers that the Environmental Liability Directive does not preclude national legislation permitting the competent authority to enforce operators to carry out environmental remedial works, even if the site has been decontaminated or has never been polluted.

The Court of Justice ruled that the competent authority is not obliged to establish fault on the part of operators whose activities are held to be responsible for the environmental damage. In accordance with the ‘polluter pays’ principle however, in order for such a causal link to be presumed the authority must have plausible evidence capable of justifying the presumption.

A press release of the ruling can be found here:
http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2010-03/cp100025en.pdf