Facts
X. AG, headquartered in Switzerland, and X. SA, headquartered in France, are subsidiaries of X. Holding AG. X. AG requested the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) to authorize the export of 50 tons of used batteries to France for recovery at the facility of X. SA. FOEN refused the export permit on the grounds that the disposal of the used batteries at X. SA in France would not be environmentally sound.
X. AG appealed the FOEN decision to the Appeals Commission for Infrastructure and Environment (REKO/INUM). The Appeals Commission dismissed the appeal, concluding that there was no guarantee of environmentally sound disposal of the batteries at the X. SA facility in France.
X. AG filed an administrative court appeal against the decision of the Appeals Commission with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court examined whether the Appeals Commission had unjustly limited its review powers and incorrectly or incompletely established the facts of the case.
The Federal Supreme Court concluded that the Appeals Commission had freely examined the decisive legal question of the environmental soundness of the disposal at X. SA and also assessed the appropriateness of FOEN's decision. In doing so, the Appeals Commission had exercised a certain degree of restraint, as it was a technically demanding matter in which the expert…