Pfizergate ruling: EU Commission violated transparency rules

In the Pfizergate scandal, an EU court ruled against Ursula von der Leyen, finding that the EU Commission violated transparency rules by denying access to text messages between the Commission President and the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

In a long-awaited ruling on the so-called “ Pfizergate ” scandal, the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg ruled that the Commission had provided “no plausible explanation to justify” its rejection of a journalist’s request for access to the texts.

The case stems from a 2023 complaint by The New York Times newspaper after the Commission refused to publish text messages from 2021 between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

The dispute over the messages – which are reportedly linked to negotiations over a signed Covid vaccine contract worth €35 billion – has given rise to accusations of secrecy and institutional lack of transparency.

The ruling, which is likely to provoke strong political reactions, reinforces growing concerns about von der Leyen's highly centralist leadership style.

In its ruling, the court stated that the New York Times had succeeded in "rebutting the presumption" that the texts had not been archived or preserved. This had partly justified the Commission's refusal to release the texts.

The EU regulation on access to documents, which is at the heart of the dispute, requires the Commission to provide "credible explanations that enable the public and the Court to understand why those documents cannot be found," the Court added.

The Commission also failed to plausibly demonstrate that the texts contained "no important information"—for example, regarding negotiations on lucrative vaccine contracts. If they did contain "important information," the Commission would be obligated to retain the texts, register them as documents, and release them upon request.

The European Commission may appeal the ruling.