Sumi Agro Europe v Syngenta (CoA, 27 December 2024)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By order of 27 December 2024 (UPC_CoA_523/2024), the judge-rapporteur of the Court of Appeal relieved Syngenta of the need to translate Exhibit FF25, a German-language document filed with its Statement of response in Sumi Agro’s appeal against an order of the Munich Local Division of 27 August 2024 (EP 2 152 073). Sumi Agro left the matter to the Court. The order sets out the framework for documents filed for the first time on appeal.

Question

May a party filing on appeal a document in a language other than the language of the proceedings be relieved of the duty to translate it?

Decision

Rule 13.1(q) allows a request that a document need not be translated, to be decided by the judge-rapporteur as soon as practicable (paragraph 3). It does not expressly cover a Statement of response on appeal, and new evidence on appeal remains the exception (Rule 222.2) (paragraph 4). Evidence must be lodged in the language of the proceedings unless the Rules or the Court provide otherwise (Rule 7) (paragraph 5). A party is relieved of translating a document first filed with the Court of Appeal only if the Court accepts this (paragraph 6), which it does here (paragraph 7).

Key points for practice

• Relief from translating a new exhibit on appeal must be requested and expressly granted. It is not presumed.

Provisions applied

Rules of Procedure

Rules 7, 13.1, 13.3 and 222.2

Prepared by Dhenne Avocats from the official decision, consulted on 10 October 2026. The database is updated every week, on Friday. Only the official text is authoritative.