On 12 June 2023, the Administrative Court No. 1 of Pontevedra has ordered the Galician government to pay €7,140 to a patient who had to seek private healthcare in April 2020 for a herniated disc.
On 13 June 2023, the French Council of State – the country's highest administrative court – has ruled in favor of a pharmacist who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The court found that the Minister of Health did not have the authority to impose certain sanctions outlined in a ministerial instruction to regional health agencies.
On 23 May 2023, the Chilean Supreme Court (Third Constitutional Chamber) revoked an appellate judgment of 24 January 2023 that had considered the exclusion of children under 3 in the country’s COVID-19 vaccination plan unconstitutional.
On 5 June 2023, the Bombay High Court ordered several people operating on websites and social media to remove statements posted online emphasizing allegedly negative side-effects of Covidshield Vaccine for COVID-19.
On 12 May 2023, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court rejected a request for amparo filed by a citizen requesting information on the contract with a pharmaceutical company for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines.
At the start of the pandemic, Amazon stopped providing rapid delivery to customers who had subscribed to Amazon Prime, i.e., a fee-based subscription service which entails receipt of several benefits not available to other Amazon customers, including rapid delivery. The subscribers were not notified of the suspension and continued to pay full price for their memberships.
On 15 May 2023, the Supreme Court annulled a judgment that denied the admissibility of an appeal in cassation in a civil liability suit against a hospital for a failure in service consisting of the failure to diagnose in a timely manner an arterial thrombosis that led to the amputation of the plaintiff's leg and the toes of the other foot.
On 16 May 2023, the Constitutional Court reviewed a tutela action brought by women in vulnerable situations claiming their inclusion in the Colombian government's Solidarity Income Program, arguing that their right to equality had been violated because they had not been classified as beneficiaries.
On 23 March 2023, the Italian Data Protection Authority addressed a complaint filed claiming that the administrator of an apartment building violated data protection regulations by sending an email to all residents disclosing that their family had tested positive for COVID-19.
On 15 June 2023, the French Supreme Court held that the debtor of an unfulfilled contractual obligation to pay a sum of money cannot be exempted from this obligation by invoking a force majeure event. Therefore, the inability to carry out an activity due to government measures taken to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus cannot excuse a commercial tenant from paying rent.
On account of the pandemic, in March 2020 Delta Airlines – like many other airline companies – cancelled the vast majority of its flights. A number of persons who had booked flights that were later cancelled, asked the company to issue a refund.
In a judgment of 8 June 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union clarified the rights of passengers in the context of flight cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 28 May 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea which sought to waive the requirement of 75% mark in class XII or equivalent for candidates to Joint Entrance Examination. Class XII corresponds to the secondary school class leading to the Senior School Certificate Compartment Examination.
In two judgments of 8 June 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that national legislation allowing travel organizers to provide vouchers instead of full refunds for terminated package travel contracts due to the COVID-19 pandemic is incompatible with EU law.
On 30 May 2023, the Supreme Court has made two significant rulings regarding hoteliers’ tax obligations during the COVID-19 lockdown.
On 13 August 2021, a health care company operating several hospitals in New York implemented a mandatory covid-19 vaccination policy which required all workforce members, including nurses, to be fully vaccinated against covid-19 by September 2021; the policy also provided for limited medical and religious exemptions.
The district consumer forum of Jabalpur upheld a claim filed by a person which had stipulated a health insurance policy covering Covid treatment but later saw his request for payment refused by the insurance company.
By judgment of 30 May 2023, the Western District of Washington gave its final approval to a class action settlement reached between a class of vulnerable immigrants detained at the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, during the pandemic and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”).
On 15.05.2023 the Supreme Court rejected the claims of a German tourist who invoked Austria’s state liability after contracting Covid-19 in Ischgl in early 2020.
On 24 May 2023, a practitioner working for a government-designated heath center in Hong Kong was jailed due to an attempt at bribing a nurse at a vaccination point in order to try and obtain a vaccination record without having actually been injected with the vaccine.
On 5 April 2023, the Constitutional Court has annulled a legal provision stating that fines paid for violating the mask mandate during the Covid-19 pandemic were non-refundable.
On 24 May 2023, the EU’s General Court has annulled a decision by the European Commission to approve an aid measure involving subsidies paid by Italy to Italian airlines during the Covid-19 pandemic, to cope with its negative economic consequences. The Commission failed to provide a sufficient statement of reasons for its finding that the measure did not violate EU laws other than those governing State aid.
Two students who were enrolled as full-time undergraduate at the Brandeis University in the Spring 2020 – like many others in the USA – filed suit against their university (a private educational institution) challenging its decision to retain the full tuition and fees collected from students from the Spring 2020 semester despite closing its on-campus facilities and transitioning from in-person to online learning.
On 28 May 2023 a court in Tokyo upheld the dismissal from work of a previous employee of a famous cruise ship which in 2020 experienced a COVID outbreak on board.
On 24 May 2023, the Constitutional Court has rejected an appeal for protection against the prohibition of a protest planned for 30 April 2020, during the first state of alarm due to Covid-19. The prohibition was decided by the Government’s Sub-delegation in Sevilla on 22 April 2020.
A man convicted of attempted illegal reentry after deportation, filed an appeal against his conviction claiming that the trial district court should have dismissed the accusations levelled against him by the district court on account of the violations of the Speedy Trial Act.
On 12 May 2023, the Singapore High Court condemned a Singaporean company to compensate the municipality of Buenos Aires (Argentina), due to failure in the delivery of Covid-19 test kits which were bought by the Argentinian city in 2020.
On 16 May 2023, the Federal Administrative Court held that the closure of leisure sports facilities, with exceptions, through the Saxon Corona Protection Ordinance of 30 October 2020, was lawful.
On 3 May 2023, the High Court of Delhi dismissed a plea of several students which sought a writ of mandamus declaring an exception to the criterion limiting attempts at the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to two in two consecutive years. The petitioners had been theoretically eligible to take part in the exam since 2021, but due to the pandemic in 2020 and the subsequent lockdown, their study was adversely affected.
The mother of a child who was under the care of the Department of Children and Family services (hereinafter also “the Department”) and who, after having turned 12, had become eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, filed suit with the juvenile court requesting that it ordered her son not be required to receive the vaccine due to religious exemption and to the many side effects her child had from medication.
On 15 March 2023, the Administrative Tribunal of San José granted a request for precautionary measure filed by a group of parents against the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, the National Vaccination and Epidemiology Commission, and the Ministry of Health.
By judgment of 11.5.2023, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire reversed a trial judgment issued in favor of a group of hotels in a covid-related business interruption case, thus joining a growing number of High State Courts that have progressively aligned with the Federal Courts’ trend of dismissing suits of such nature, especially when they relate to all-risk commercial property insurance policies.
On 16 May 2023, the Federal Administrative Court held in two cases that the closure of gastronomy establishments at the end of October 2020 based on the general clause of Infection Control Law was lawful.
A High Court judge in Ireland has rejected a request for the taxpayer to cover the legal costs of parties making unsubstantiated claims about the Covid-19 vaccine.
To address the urgent need of producing a vaccine against Covid-19, in May 2020 the Government launched Operation Warp Speed, i.e., an interagency partnership between the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the United States Department of Health and Human Services which aimed at accelerating the development acquisition and distribution of a Covid-19 vaccine.
On 10 May 2023, the EU’s General Court has annulled a European Commission decision to approve a €6 billion bailout package for Lufthansa as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This project and its database have been made possible with the financial support from the World Health Organization