[3][4] Article 21 TFEU defines that "every citizen of the Union shall have the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States."

On these grounds, the Romanian immigration authorities denied a residence permit for his spouse when the couple wanted to move back after living in the United States.

The European Commission and the Netherlands intervened on behalf of the applicants, while Latvia, Poland, and Hungary filed briefs supporting Romania's position.

If the answer to [the third question] is in the affirmative, do Articles 3(2) and 7(2) of Directive 2004/38, read in the light of Articles 7, 9, 21 and 45 of the Charter, require the host Member State to grant the right of residence in its territory for a period of longer than three months to the same-sex spouse of a Union citizen?’ A hearing was held on 21 November 2017.

Kochenov and Belavusau also state that "Coman is among the best-founded decisions of the Court in its history from the viewpoints of legal certainty and the articulation of the letter and the spirit of the law."

They note that, in light of European Court of Human Rights rulings in Oliari and Others v. Italy (in which Italy was required to provide some form of legal recognition to same-sex couples) and Pajić v. Croatia (in which Croatia was required to grant residency rights to a Bosnian citizen in a same-sex relationship with a Croatian citizen), "if only Romania was a state compliant with ECHR law, no recourse to EU law would be necessary at all in this case".