The NH Case: On the “Wings of Words” in EU Anti-discrimination Law

This Insight examines a judgment of the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice in case C-507/17, NH v. Associa-zione Avvocatura per I Diritti LGBTI - Rete Lenford (23 April 2020). In its preliminary ruling, the Court deliberat-ed on whether a statement made by a senior lawyer at an Italian law firm during a media interview, abstractly asserting that he would never hire a gay colleague, constituted direct discrimination in terms of EU law, even though no specific vacancy opening was advertised at the time of the interview. Furthermore, the Court consid-ered whether a local LGBTI organization (an association of lawyers) had standing to bring a lawsuit for damages even though none of its affiliates were applying for a position at the law firm. The case fits the sequel - now forming a "Luxembourg trilogy" - of three judgments of the Court of Justice on similar matters of racist and ho-mophobic speech akin to direct discrimination in the employment context, with judgments in C-54/07 Feryn (10 July 2008) and C-81/12 Asociaţia ACCEPT (25 April 2013) preceding the C-507/17 NH and answering most of NH's outstanding questions. It remains questionable, therefore, whether the preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice in the NH case was even necessary in terms of the acte clair doctrine or whether this 2020 judgment substan-tively clarified EU anti-discrimination law.