Advances in reproductive technology have tended to outpace the capacity of legislators to respond to these changes, leading to difficult legal questions for the courts. Surrogacy is one particular area where advances in technology have led to many legal challenges and have highlighted the failure (in several jurisdictions) to enact appropriate legislation in response to technological developments and/or differing views about what is ‘appropriate’. Two recent cases before the European Court of Justice (CJEU) have raised the issues as to whether either EU secondary legislation (in particular the Pregnant Workers Directive 92/85/EEC and/or the Equal Treatment Directives 2006/54/EC and 2000/78/EC) or fundamental principles of EU law require that the ‘commissioning’ mothers of children born as a result of surrogacy arrangements should be entitled to paid leave equivalent to that provided to pregnant mothers. This note discusses and analyses these two cases. It is argued that – notwithstanding the policy importance of the issues raised – the legal basis for the claims advanced was weak and the Court was correct to hold that there was no right to surrogacy leave under existing EU law.