European Union – Consumer protection. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that art 5(3) of European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) 261/2004 had to be interpreted as meaning that a technical problem, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which had occurred unexpectedly, which was not attributable to poor maintenance and which had also not been detected during routine maintenance checks, did not fall within the definition of 'extraordinary circumstances' within the meaning of that provision.