Beer Importer Loses Bid for Full Meeting Details

(CN) – European officials are not required to disclose the full details of a 1996 meeting with lobbyists from a brewery association to a U.K. beer importer, Europe’s high court ruled Tuesday.     The Court of Justice in Luxembourg overturned a 2007 decision for Bavarian Lager Co., which had sought access to notes on the meeting about the U.K. beer market.     The commission agreed to disclose the notes, but blacked out five names. Bavarian Lager then filed another application to review the full, unredacted minutes. The commission refused.     “The commission was right to reject the application for access to the full minutes of the meeting,” the high court ruled.     It said Bavarian Lager lacked “any express or legitimate justification or any convincing argument in order to demonstrate the necessity for those personal data.”