Stevi and The New York Times v Commission: Institutional Transparency in the digital age

Abstract

The General Court’s judgment of 14 May 2025 in Stevi and The New York Times v Commission constitutes one of the most significant recent rulings on institutional transparency within the European Union. Although it does not establish entirely new legal principles, it extends existing case law on access to documents to the context of ephemeral digital communications, particularly the text messages allegedly exchanged between the President of the European Commission and the Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court reiterates that an institution’s statement that it does not possess the requested documents benefits from a presumption of truthfulness, while also confirming that such a presumption may be rebutted where the applicant provides relevant and consistent evidence suggesting their existence. In those circumstances, the institution must provide a concrete, coherent and verifiable explanation of the searches undertaken and of the reasons why the documents are not in its possession. This commentary examines the reasoning of the judgment, its relationship with the principle of good administration, and its implications for records management in the digital age. It also considers the potential impact of the ruling on national public authorities with regard to transparency, document retention and democratic accountability.