Pesticide test data remain confidential

Test data supplied by companies in support of pesticide authorisations cannot be relied upon by other firms until at least 1996 when EC legislation will remove restrictions, the High Court has held. Although the decision turned on a fairly narrow point of construction, it appears to have been the first time that the Court has been required to consider in detail the statutory provisions governing the control of pesticides and the nature of the voluntary arrangements that preceded their introduction in 1986. Yet again, the case illustrates the interaction of EC and national law.