An EU court has ruled that the European Commission violated transparency rules by failing to grant access to text messages between Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of pharma giant Pfizer.

In a long-awaited judgement in the so-called 'Pfizergate' scandal, the General Court of the EU in Luxembourg decided that the Commission "has not given a plausible explanation to justify" its dismissal of a journalist's request to access the texts.

The case stems from a 2023 complaint filed by The New York Times after the Commission refused to release text messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in 2021, while the Covid-19 pandemic raged across Europe.