BRUSSELS — If you ordered Christmas presents from a Chinese web shop, they are likely to be toxic, unsafe or undervalued. Or all of the above. The EU is trying to do something about the flood but is tripping over itself 27 times to get there. “It’s absolutely crazy…” sighs one EU official. The official, granted anonymity to discuss preparations to tackle the problem, said that at some airport freight hubs, an estimated 80 percent of such inbound packages don’t comply with EU safety rules. The numbers are dizzying. In 2024, 4.6 billion small packages with contents worth less than €150 entered the EU. That all-time record was broken in September of this year. Because these individual air-mail packages replace whole containers shipping the same product, the workload for customs officials has increased exponentially over recent years. Non-compliant, cheaply-made products — such as dangerous toys or kitchen items — bring health risks. And a growing pile of garbage. It’s a problem for everyone along the chain. Customs officers can’t keep up; buyers end up with useless products; children are put at risk; and EU makers of similar items are undercut by unfair and untaxed competition. With the situation on the ground becoming unmanageable, the EU agreed this month to charge a €3 fixed fee on all such packages. This will effectively remove a tax-free exemption on packages worth €150 — but only from July of next year. It’s a crude, and temporary, fix because existing customs IT systems can’t yet tax items according to their actual value. ALL I WANT … Which is why all European lawmaker Anna Cavazzini wants for next year’s holiday season is “better rules.” Cavazzini is a key player in a push to harmonize the EU’s 27 national customs regimes. A proposed reform, now being discussed by the EU institutions, would create a central data hub and an EU Customs Agency, or EUCA, with oversight powers. As is so often the case in the EU, though, the customs reform is only progressing slowly. The EUCA will be operational only from late 2026. And the data hub probably won’t be up and running until the next decade. “We need a fundamental discussion on the Europeanization of customs,” Cavazzini told POLITICO. As chair of the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO), the lawmaker from the German Greens has been pushing the Council, the EU’s intergovernmental branch, to allow the customs reform to make the bloc’s single market more of a unified reality. European lawmaker Anna Cavazzini. | Martin Bertrand and Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images EU capitals worry — as always — about handing over too much power to the eurocrats in Brussels. But the main outstanding issue where negotiators disagree is more prosaic: it’s about whether the law should include an explicit list of offences, such making false declarations to customs officers. While the last round of negotiations in early December brought some progress on other areas, the unsolved penalties question has kicked the reform into 2026. With the millions of boxes, packages and parcels inbound, regardless, individual countries are also considering handling fees, beside the €3 tax that all have agreed on. France has already proposed a solo fee with revenues flowing into its national budget, and Belgium and the Netherlands will probably follow suit. RACE TO THE BOTTOM Customs reform is what’s needed, not another round of fragmented fees and a race to the bottom, said Dirk Gotink, the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on the customs reform. “Right now, the ideas launched by France and others are not meant to stem the flow of packages. They are just meant to earn money,” the Dutch center-right lawmaker told a recent briefing. To inspect the myriad ways in which they are a risk, Gotink’s team bought a few items from dubious-looking web shops. “With this one, the eyes are coming off right away,” he warned before handing a plush toy to a reporter. The reporter almost succeeded in separating the head from the creature’s body without too much effort. And thin, plastic eyes trailed the toy as it was passed around the room. “On the box it says it’s meant for people over 15 years old…” one reporter commented. But the cute creature is clearly targeted at far younger audiences. Adding to the craze, K-pop stars excitedly unbox new characters in online promotional videos. The troubles aren’t limited to toys. A jar of cosmetics showed by Gotink had inscriptions on its label that didn’t resemble any known alphabet. Individual products aside, the deluge of cheap merchandise also creates unfair competition, said Cavazzini: “A lot of European companies of course also fulfill the environmental obligations and the imports don’t,” she said. “This is also creating a huge unlevel playing field.” After the holidays, Gotink and Cavazzini will pick up negotiations on the customs reform with Cyprus, which from Jan. 1 takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU from Denmark. “This file will be a priority during our presidency,” a Cypriot official told POLITICO, adding that Denmark had completed most of the technical work. “We aim to conclude this important file, hoping to reach a deal with the Parliament during the first months of the Cyprus Presidency.” Despite the delays, an EU diplomat working on customs policy told POLITICO that the current speed of the policy process is unprecedented: “This huge ecommerce pressure has really made all the difference. A year ago, this would have been unimaginable.”

The Louvre Museum in Paris has been temporarily closed following a robbery, France’s culture minister said Sunday morning. Rachida Dati wrote on X that the robbery happened Sunday morning and that there were no reports of injuries. An investigation has been launched, she said. The museum said that it will remain closed Sunday “for exceptional reasons.” According to the French daily Le Parisien, the thieves accessed the building on the Seine docks, where work is taking place. They used a freight elevator to access directly the targeted room, in the Apollo gallery, according to the report. After breaking windows, two hooded men entered, while a third remained stationed outside, according to the Parisien report. The thieves took nine pieces from the Napoleon and the Empress jewellery collection. The damage is still being assessed, it said. The Regent, the largest diamond in the collection weighing more than 140 carats, was not stolen, according to the report. The criminals fled on a scooter toward the A6 motorway, the newspaper said. The Louvre is the world’s most visited museum and houses many famous artworks and other valuable items.

LONDON — Britain is sleepwalking through its biggest food safety crisis since the horsemeat scandal of 2013, a group of influential MPs warned as they dismissed a recent personal import ban on EU meat and cheese as “toothless.” The government moved in April to prohibit travelers from EU countries from bringing meat and dairy products into the U.K. following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease across the continent. However, as reported by POLITICO, the ban has not been fully enforced, with experts warning that U.K. health officials lack the funds to uphold the rules. In a damning report on Monday, the parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee warned that “alarming amounts” of meat and dairy products were still being illegally imported for both personal consumption and sale. The committee welcomed the government’s ban on personal imports of meat and dairy from the EU but described it as “toothless,” with prohibited products continuing to enter the U.K. through airports, seaports and the Eurotunnel in freight, parcels, personal baggage and passenger vehicles. “It would not be an exaggeration to say that Britain is sleepwalking through its biggest food safety crisis since the horse meat scandal,” committee chair Alistair Carmichael said. “A still bigger concern is the very real risk of a major animal disease outbreak. The single case of foot-and-mouth disease in Germany this year, most likely caused by illegally imported meat, cost its economy one billion euros.” He urged the government to “get a grip on what has become a crisis” by establishing a national taskforce, boosting food crime intelligence networks, enforcing “real deterrents,” and giving port health and local authorities the resources and powers they need.   During the committee’s nine-month inquiry into animal and plant health, experts painted a gruesome picture of the situation at the border, describing cases of meat arriving in unsanitary conditions, often in the back of vans, stashed in plastic bags, suitcases and cardboard boxes. At the Port of Dover alone, port health officials say they intercepted 70 tons of illegal meat imports from vehicles between January and the end of April, compared with 24 tons during the same period in 2024. During a Public Accounts Committee session on animal disease last week, Emma Miles, director general for food, biosecurity and trade at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it was unclear whether the increase in the number of seizures of illegal meat at Dover was due to a rise in crime or to better surveillance. “When you’re catching people it might just mean you are doing better surveillance and enforcement,” she said.

Explosions caused two bridges to collapse overnight in Russian regions bordering Ukraine, Russian officials said Sunday without specifying what caused the blasts.  Russia’s Investigative Committee said it would be investigating the incidents as potential acts of terrorism. The blasts, which came ahead of peace talks scheduled for Monday in Istanbul, killed at least seven people and injured dozens more. In Russia’s Bryansk region, an explosion caused a road bridge to collapse onto a railway line late Saturday, derailing a passenger train heading to Moscow, according to the Russian authorities. A separate rail bridge in the neighboring Kursk region was blown up hours later in the early hours of Sunday, derailing a freight train and injuring the driver, the authorities said. The Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, said in a statement that explosions had caused the two bridges to collapse, but did not give further details. Several hours later, it edited the statement, which was posted on social media, to remove the word “explosions” but did not provide an explanation, the Associated Press reported. In the Bryansk region, social media pictures and videos showed part of a passenger train crushed under a collapsed road bridge. “The bridge was blown up while the Klimovo-Moscow train was passing through with 388 passengers on board,” Alexander Bogomaz, the region’s governor, told Russian television. Acting Kursk Governor Alexander Khinshtein, meanwhile, wrote on Telegram that a bridge collapsed in his region’s Zheleznogorsky district while a freight train was moving, injuring one of its drivers.

BERLIN — German police have arrested three people accused of working for Russian intelligence to plan bomb attacks inside Germany.  The suspects, two men and one woman, were detained in separate operations in the western city of Cologne, the southern city of Konstanz and in Switzerland. All three are Ukrainian nationals and are being held on suspicion of espionage and preparing acts of sabotage.  According to federal prosecutors, the group allegedly planned to send parcel bombs designed to explode during shipment — a tactic aimed at creating public fear and undermining trust in Germany’s infrastructure. At a press conference Wednesday, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul directly blamed the Russian government for the plot. “The individuals had agreed, no later than the end of March 2025, to carry out arson and bomb attacks on freight transport in Germany — acting on behalf of Russian state authorities,” he said.  Reul called it “an extraordinary event” and warned that the case marks “a new level of hybrid threats here in North Rhine-Westphalia, but also across Germany.” Reul emphasized that Russian intelligence services are now acting “more aggressively” and taking greater risks in their operations. “They no longer need trained agents of the old school,” he said. “So-called low-level agents — recruited for little money — are now enough.” He added that Russia’s targets include not only government institutions, but also “critical infrastructure, private businesses, and individual citizens.” Authorities believe the group tested the plot by sending packages with GPS trackers and intended to use thermite — a highly flammable chemical that burns at extremely high temperatures — as the main incendiary material. Their plans reportedly resembled a July 2024 incident at an airport in the eastern city of Leipzig, where a parcel caught fire during shipment. The arrests followed a months-long investigation involving domestic intelligence services, federal and regional police, and state security authorities. The main suspect, Vladyslav T., had allegedly been living covertly in Cologne. Surveillance of him led authorities to his partner, Lolita K., and to Daniil B., who was living in a refugee center in Konstanz. All three were arrested at or near their residences. Several electronic devices were seized, and a fourth person is being investigated abroad. None of the suspects were previously known to law enforcement.

ATHENS ― Greece will come almost entirely to a standstill Friday as grief, anger and accusations of high-level political corruption reach a head. Public transport, airplanes, schools and courts ― even supermarkets, shops, cafés, theaters, bars and clubs ― will close their doors, while huge demonstrations are expected to paralyze the country. The national strike is unprecedented in its breadth in this country of 10 million. While on their surface the protests merely mark the two-year anniversary of the country’s worst rail tragedy ― an accident that killed 57 people ― at its core are the emotions and unsettling questions the crash provoked. Those go far beyond the disaster itself.  Amid an atmosphere of blame, recrimination and suspicion that the government isn’t being honest with its citizens, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis faces his biggest challenge since taking office in 2019. Given public concerns over the administration’s commitment to democracy and legal freedoms, his reaction to the protests is being watched closely. According to opinion polls, the vast majority of Greeks believe the government is attempting to cover up what really happened, and who was really to blame, when a freight train and a passenger train packed with students crashed head-on just before midnight on Feb. 28, 2023. There is speculation ― neither proved nor entirely disproven ― that highly flammable chemicals were being transported. It doesn’t help that two years on, a trial has yet to even begin amid constant delays in the investigation. Greeks have lost trust in their country’s judicial system, the surveys say, while the government denies any wrongdoing. EXPLOSION AND A FIREBALL Friday’s protests, which are being organized by the families of the crash victims, will take place in more than 350 cities both in Greece and abroad, places as diverse as Akureyi in Iceland, Mexico City and South Korea. While the government of the center-right New Democracy party was reelected after the tragedy, its handling of the fallout since has only served to intensify the scrutiny.  The pressure became intense in January after audio recordings from inside the train were leaked. The evidence indicated that some victims had survived the impact and may have died due to asphyxiation or burns from a massive explosion and fireball that ripped through the carriages. It included a young woman’s last words ― “I have no oxygen” ― in a call to emergency services.  “Serious information went missing because the site of the accident was not sealed,” said Christos Papadimitriou, the head of Greece’s National Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Organization, which was created after the crash. Papadimitriou hailed the families of the victims who had taken on the “titanic task” of investigating the accident scene themselves and had commissioned private experts in the absence of a coordinated state response. “Everyone owes them an apology,” he said. Friday’s protests, which are being organized by the families of the crash victims, will take place in more than 350 cities both in Greece and abroad, places as diverse as Akureyi in Iceland, Mexico City and South Korea. | Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP via Getty Images The government also failed to heed a call from the European public prosecutor to take action regarding the potential criminal liability of two former transport ministers following the crash. “Those who delayed [the implementation of the railway contract] have contributed decisively to the death of these children,” Papadimitriou said. The main opposition, the center-left Pasok party, said it would file a no-confidence motion in parliament against the government. However, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis ruled out the possibility of early elections and accused Pasok of opportunism and attempting to exploit the tragedy for electoral gain. ‘MUST NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN’ A long-awaited report on the investigation was released on Thursday, blaming human error, the country’s outdated infrastructure and major systemic failures for the deadly crash. The 178-page report by the Accident Investigation Organization confirmed suspicions that an “unknown” substance may have contributed to a massive explosion and fireball. Intense speculation has surrounded the cargo that was being transported by the freight train that night, and multiple investigations have probed the possibility of oil smuggling. Trace amounts of xylene and benzene, chemicals used in the manufacture of gasoline, were detected at the scene. Accident Investigation Organization experts said that vital information was lost by improper handling of the accident site. Wrecked carriages were removed, and the site was covered with rubble three days after the crash, at a time when families were still hoping to recover the remains of the victims. It remains unclear who gave that order. “What happened ― with the evidence being destroyed in three days ― must never happen again,” lead investigator Kostas Kapetanidis said at a press conference. The investigators also cited procedural errors for the failure to identify the type of fuel being transported. The report describes a chaotic situation in the aftermath of the accident. “There was no actual coordination, whether at operational or strategical level, of the different services at the scene of the collision. Each service continued to operate under its own orders, initiatives, and personnel without any interaction at the organizational level,” it said. “One particular result of this is the fact that no proper mapping of the accident investigation site was performed.”

LONDON — A flurry of new cargo flights from China’s Xinjiang province to Britain may be trafficking goods made with forced labor, the U.K. government is being warned. Three brand-new routes connecting Xinjiang — at the center of international human rights concerns over the treatment of the Uyghur ethnic group — to major U.K. airports have opened up since last summer. It’s prompted demands for an investigation from the head of the British parliament’s cross-party human rights committee, who fired off a letter to the U.K. government earlier this month — and is considering calling freight bosses to give evidence in Westminster. “I fear that these routes are being used to bring goods made with forced labor into the U.K.,” said David Alton in a Jan. 17 letter to Home Office Minister David Hanson, seen by POLITICO. The fresh trade routes all sprang up in 2024, and come amid increased popularity for a host of Chinese e-commerce platforms in the U.K. European charter airline Titan Airways operates what has been billed as the first direct route between Xinjiang and London. Data shows that flights run every one to two days. The route, which became operational in December, specializes in e-commerce cargo. European Cargo meanwhile launched a new direct route from Xinjiang to Cardiff airport in October. It flies three times every week, and deals primarily with e-commerce cargo. It was launched last year with talk of a “milestone flight” carrying 59 tons of e-commerce packages. The same cargo carrier also expanded its operations, connecting Xinjiang to Bournemouth airport last August, with four flights per week. Also specializing in e-commerce goods, it carried 58 tons in its maiden voyage. Both Titan Airways and European Cargo have issued statements saying that they comply with the U.K.’s Modern Slavery Act, which requires firms to be vigilant and report on steps to guard against forced labor in their supply chains. European Cargo declined to comment when approached by POLITICO, and Titan Airways did not respond to a request for comment. The route, which became operational in December, specializes in e-commerce cargo. | STR/AFP via Getty Images Alton’s human rights committee is now weighing up whether to call in cargo carriers using these routes to give evidence in an ongoing forced labor inquiry. The e-commerce imports, flown into Stansted, Cardiff and Bournemouth, are “most likely tainted by Uyghur forced labor,” Alton wrote to the Conservatives’ Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel in a separate letter. He sent a similar letter to Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch, whose constituency neighbors Stansted airport. LAGGING BEHIND THE US AND EU It comes as pressure mounts on U.K. ministers to crack down on forced labor in international supply chains. This month Alton’s committee launched an inquiry into forced labor, and has been pressing the government to update laws. MPs on the House of Commons business and trade committee are also preparing to push for stricter regulations. Some British lawmakers argue that the U.K.’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 — passed by the Tories — lags behind similar measures in the EU and United States. The U.K. “lacks a forced labor due-diligence screening mechanism compared to our partners in Europe and the USA which has the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” Alton said in his letter to the Home Office. Under the current law, U.K. firms making more than £36 million must file an annual report about how they’ve prevented modern slavery in their operations. “I fear that these routes are being used to bring goods made with forced labor into the U.K.,” said David Alton in a Jan. 17 letter to Home Office Minister David Hanson, seen by POLITICO. | Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images The Home Office’s Border Force “does not routinely assess whether goods on freight entering the U.K. may have been made using forced labor,” Minister Hanson said in a parliamentary reply to Alton this week. But he insisted: “The government encourages businesses to monitor their global supply chains with rigor, uncover and remedy any instances of modern slavery they may find.” It is a government “failure” that Border Force isn’t required to check imports for using slave labor, Alton said in an interview with POLITICO. “The U.K. has opened itself up as a dumping ground,” he warned. That view was echoed by China-watchers in the U.K., who have long warned about Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghurs people. China has detained Uyghurs at camps in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where there have been allegations of torture, forced labor and sexual abuse. The Chinese government claims the camps carry out “re-education” to combat terrorism. China has detained Uyghurs at camps in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where there have been allegations of torture, forced labor and sexual abuse. | Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images “Without a forced labor screening regime, the U.K. is fast becoming a dumping ground and potentially a re-export market for goods made with Uyghur forced labor,” said Sam Goodman of the hawkish China Strategic Risks Institute think tank. “The U.K. should have no direct imports from the Uyghur region,” warned Chloe Cranston, a supply chain expert at Anti-Slavery International.  “Due to the scale of the persecution and the systematic nature of state-imposed forced labor across the Uyghur region, we have to presume all products made in the Uyghur region, whether factory or farm, are very likely made with Uyghur forced labor,” she added. New airfreight routes connecting Xinjiang to the U.K. show a “critical need for import controls,” Cranston added. The U.K. government needs to take forced labor seriously, Alton said. “It’s like semaphore. It’s all dependent on the signals you send.”

ATHENS — Tens of thousands of Greeks poured into the streets on Sunday to demand justice over a crash that killed 57 people — the country’s worst. One of the largest demonstrations in recent years took place in the capital’s Syntagma Square in front of the parliament, while protests took place in more than 100 cities in Greece and abroad. Protesters were holding banners reading “I have no oxygen,” echoing a young woman’s last words in a call to an emergency line, published by local media last week. “Citizens are disillusioned. The growing crisis of trust in institutions is evident as the distinction between executive power and the judiciary continues to erode, especially in cases like the Tempe tragedy,” said Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the main opposition party Pasok. “This is what in history we call a breakthrough,” New Left leader Alexis Charitsis said. “The social front has shaken the whole country.” The head-on collision of a freight train and a passenger train packed with students took place just before midnight on Feb. 28, 2023. Almost two years later, a trial is yet to start and keeps getting pushed back by delays in key parts of the investigation. Greece’s ruling New Democracy government failed to heed a call from the European public prosecutor to take action regarding the potential criminal liability of two former transport ministers following the train crash. The government, which was reelected after the railway tragedy, denies the accusations. The latest call for answers comes after audio evidence leaked last week indicated that some 30 of the 57 victims of the tragedy were still alive after the crash and died later, possibly as a result of asphyxiation or burns, as the collision caused a massive explosion and fire. The government’s proposal of former parliament speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas for the Greek presidency last week, further angered the relatives, who say that under his watch the parliament refused to attribute any political responsibility. “We want to ensure that no crime goes unpunished,” said Maria Karystianou, a representative of the association of families the victims, who lost her daughter and called the events a “mafia-style operation to cover up the truth.” Clashes erupted at the end of the protests in Athens and Thessaloniki. “The government responded to the request for oxygen with tear gas and flash grenades,” the opposition Syriza party said in a statement.

Romania and Bulgaria might finally get the green light to become full members of the EU free-travel zone from the turn of the year, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said Friday. The countries were supposed to join the Schengen zone in 2023 along with Croatia, but that deal unraveled when Austria objected that Bulgaria and Romania were failing to handle a steep rise in migrants arriving through the Western Balkan route. The Netherlands also opposed Bulgaria’s entry. While air and maritime internal controls with the countries were lifted earlier this year, a Council deal to lift internal land borders is still pending. But at a meeting Friday in Budapest, the internal affairs ministers of Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria and Romania agreed to “initiate the necessary steps” to set a date to lift checks on land borders with Romania and Bulgaria, on the condition that joint efforts to stem irregular migration are continued. Their declaration also specified that the countries agreed to continue checks on borders between Hungary and Romania and between Romania and Bulgaria for at least six months “to prevent any serious threat to public policy or internal security.” The deal means there is hope that ministers meeting on Dec. 12 will agree to lift controls on the land borders with Bulgaria and Romania, Johansson said. She added that she hopes that the Council would settle on Jan. 1 as the start date. Romania and Bulgaria “have fulfilled all criteria — and above,” according to the commissioner. While overall irregular migration to the EU is down by 40 percent, there’s been an 80 percent decrease on the Western Balkan route, and there have been “no hiccups” since air borders were lifted, she said. Austria’s veto has not gone down well in Romania and Bulgaria, with the countries arguing that the continued border checks have resulted in long queues, supply chain disruptions and delayed deliveries, dealing a blow to their economies.  The fresh prospect of full Schengen membership comes at an opportune time for Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who is running for president. He is leading the polls ahead of the first round of the election this Sunday. “Romanians have already felt the benefits of partial entry into the Schengen Area, but Romanian economic growth will be boosted with full accession, including by land,” Ciolacu said in comments Friday. There has been a massive drop in migrant arrival numbers, which are now “moving toward zero,” Austria’s Internal Affairs Minister Gerhard Karner said following the ministerial meeting. But he nonetheless remained cautious, saying that he’d discuss the border measures with his chancellor, Karl Nehammer, before taking a decision. The final decision will be taken in December, he said, adding; “Cross the bridge when you get there.” Addressing Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, Johansson was more enthusiastic: “You belong in Schengen, and you deserve to  benefit from all the freedoms in the Schengen area.”

The EU’s highest court threw out on Friday a controversial measure mandating that trucks have to return to their registered base every eight weeks, bringing an exceptionally bitter feud at the heart of the internal market to a close. The truck return mandate aimed to prevent companies from setting up shop in low-cost countries while operating on a near-permanent basis in other parts of the bloc. But it outraged countries on the EU’s periphery, which feared it would effectively exclude them from the internal market. The court said negotiators hadn’t done their homework before adding the measure. “The Parliament and the Council have not established that they had sufficient information at their disposal when that measure was adopted to enable them to assess its proportionality,” the Court of Justice of the EU found. The truck return obligation was, by far, the most controversial part of the Mobility Package reforms, which introduced new rules on truck drivers’ rest times, their right to local remuneration levels, and their ability to circulate within other countries to carry out deliveries there. That proved highly incendiary: While richer member countries argued the measures were crucial to prevent cheaper truckers from other countries from undermining local drivers’ working conditions, Central and Eastern European countries said the measures were protectionist and undercut the single market. Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta and Poland brought a total of 15 overlapping challenges of the measures, but the Court of Justice upheld all other parts of the package.