Through the back door?

It is a basic tenet of EU law that Directives are not capable of horizontal direct effect. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has decisively rejected extending horizontal direct effect to Directives (Faccini Dori v Recreb Srl: C-91/92 [1995] All ER (EC) 1). However, subsequent judgments of the court have clouded the issue (Mangold v Helm: C-144/04 [2006] All ER (EC) 383, and Kücükdeveci v Swedex GmbH & Co KG: C-555/07 [2010] All ER (EC) 867).

Mangold

Mangold, aged 56, was employed on a fixed-term employment contract. He subsequently brought proceedings in the German courts against his private sector employer, challenging the fixed-term nature of his contract. He argued that the contract breached Directive 2000/78 (the Directive), which prohibits various types of discrimination, including age. The discrimination occurred because a German law introduced in 2002 only permitted fixed term contracts for employees younger than 52 in exceptional circumstances; this restriction did not apply to employees