No reference to the High Court

Order made on 7 April 2025
Case no. BS-35409/2024-HJR

Bæredygtigt Landbrug (national association for sustainable agriculture) acting for
A,
B,
and
C
vs.
The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration

The main proceedings concerned whether the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration’s letter of 6 November 2020 to mink farmers A, B and C constituted a violation of article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights and, if so, whether it could give rise to a claim for compensation for non-pecuniary loss.

The District Court had referred the case to the High Court as the first instance. The High Court referred the case back to the District Court on the grounds that the decision in the case should mainly be based on a concrete assessment of the evidence concerning the circumstances of the individual plaintiffs’ mink farms, including in particular the circumstances surrounding the killing of the mink herds in question in the period after the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration’s letter of 6 November 2020. The decision was not found to involve a matter of principle of a more general nature meriting reference to the Supreme Court as a second instance without special authorisation.

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that the conditions for referring the case to the High Court were not met.