Court of Appeal, October 12, 2026, Order, UPC_CoA_146/2026, UPC_CoA_147/2026, UPC_CoA_148/2026

Representatives before the Court are expected to organise their professional activities and make appropriate arrangements within their legal teams so as to ensure compliance with procedural time periods.

A heavy workload resulting from other pending cases does not, in itself, justify an extension, particularly where the competing professional commitments were foreseeable. The applications do not establish that the matters identified could not have been addressed through appropriate advance planning, allocation of work or other reasonable organisational measures. This applies all the more to commitements that fall after the expiry of the time period for which extension is sought.

School holidays (here: the Bavarian summer and autumn holiday periods) and the following absences within the representatives’ legal team are likewise forseeable circumstances that should be taken into account when organising the preparation of the Statements of grounds of appeal.

Procedural time periods serve to ensure the orderly and expeditious progress of the proceedings. Extending the time period for lodging the Statements of grounds of appeal would postpone the completion of the written procedure and, consequently, the point at which the appeals may proceed to their subsequent stages.