European Union – Civil and commercial matters. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling in which it decided that Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 had to be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which provided that, in the event that a judicial document, served on a defendant residing in the territory of another member state, had not been drafted or accompanied by a translation either in a language which that defendant understood, or in the official language of the requested member state or, where there were several official languages in that member state, in the official language or one of the official languages of the place where service was to be effected, the omission of the standard form set out in Annex II to that Regulation rendered such service or notification invalid, even if such invalidity had to be invoked by that defendant within a specified period or at the beginning of the proceedings and before any defence on the merits.