Court Sides With New York Times Over Access to E.U. Covid Vaccine Messages

In a case that could help shape transparency rules in a digital era, a court on Wednesday said that the European Union should not have denied a journalist’s request for text messages exchanged as a top official negotiated for coronavirus vaccine access.

The case centered on the European Commission’s denial of the request, from a New York Times journalist, for text messages between Ursula von der Leyen, president of the commission, and Pfizer’s chief executive, Dr. Albert Bourla. The two exchanged the messages in 2021 while striking a deal for Covid-19 vaccines, and The Times brought a case seeking them in 2023.

The question at the core of the case was whether Ms. von der Leyen’s text messages were covered by E.U. transparency laws and should have potentially been released.

The commission, the European Union’s executive arm, argued that text messages are “short-lived” by nature and do not contain important information that would require them to be retained. It remains unclear whether the messages in question still exist or whether they have been deleted.

The General Court in Luxembourg rejected the commission’s argument.

“The commission cannot merely state that it does not hold the requested documents but must provide credible explanations enabling the public and the court to understand why those documents cannot be found,” the judges ruled.

The commission also “failed to explain in a plausible manner” why it thought that messages exchanged on such a major issue — the procurement of vaccines for a public health crisis — did not contain important information, the court said.