Locatrans v. ES, Case C-485/24, CJEU (First Section), 11 December 2025

Determination of the law applicable to an employment contract presenting cross-border elements for the purposes of assessing the lawfulness of a termination of employment, on the basis of the Rome Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations, opened for signature in Rome on 19 June 1980 («Rome Convention»).

Art. 6, Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations, opened for signature in Rome on 19 June 1980 («Rome Convention»), .

Art. 8, Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I).

1. The employment contract is governed by the law chosen by the parties. However, such choice shall not have the result of depriving the employee of the protection afforded to him by the provisions that cannot be derogated of the law of the country in which the employee habitually carries out his or her work or, if the employee does not habitually carry out his work in any one country, of the law of the country in which the employer’s place of business that engaged the employee is situated.

2. Where the employee has habitually carried out his work first in one State and then in another, it is not possible to identify a country of habitual employment. In such cases, the employee benefits from the mandatory rules of the law of the country in which the employer’s establishment that engaged the employee is located.