Lin, after Taricco: The Court of Justice Squares the Circle on Limitation Periods (Lin II, C-280/25)

With the Lin II judgment (C-280/25, 16 July 2026) – confirming Lin I (C-107/23, 24 July 2023) – the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter, the Court of Justice) stated that national standards concerning limitation periods must be set aside where they conflict with the primacy, unity, and effectiveness of EU law. More specifically, the Romanian constitutional standard of lex mitior to procedural matters cannot be applied where it conflicts with the obligation to impose effective penalties for fraud affecting the EU’s financial interests at 325 TFEU. By developing the reasoning initiated in the Taricco judgments (C-105/14, 8 September 2015 and C-42/17, 5 December 2017) the Lin judgments precise the scope of Article 49 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in relation to lex mitior.