A secret list of hand luggage banned from aircraft is to be made public after a ruling was made at Europe’s highest court during the case of a tennis player who was barred from a flight when he tried to take his rackets on holiday with him.

Gottfried Heinrich’s claim for compensation was backed by the European Court of Justice yesterday. In an interim ruling it agreed that Mr Heinrich could not have been expected to know that tennis rackets were banned.

During the case it emerged that rackets were deemed a security threat in a confidential EU regulation, as well as other sporting gear such as skate-boards, golf clubs and fishing rods.

Yesterday the European Commission agreed to publish the full list soon. The court added that having a secret dossier of prohibited items was so absurd as to be legally worthless.

“It is utterly illogical to produce a list of banned objects from cabin baggage yet not tell anyone what they are,” said Ignasi Guardans, a Spanish MEP who campaigned on behalf of Mr Heinrich. “We must all know what is permissible on board an aircraft and what is not.”

The existence of the secret list was disclosed by the European Commission in 2004. But the court case in Luxembourg revealed that prohibited objects were regularly added or removed from the confidential “annexe to airline security regulations”.

Mr Heinrich cleared security checks at Vienna airport but was stopped by officials at the boarding gate. He subsequently brought a case against the Austrian authorities for coopting an EU regulation that he could not have known he had contravened.

Eleanor Sharpston, the Advocate-General, described the EU rule as defective and inadequate and added that “the duty to publish regulations was unequivocal and without exception”.

She said the court should go further than merely declaring the regulation invalid and declare it to be nonexistent – a criticism so serious that it is only the second time that it has been made about an EU regulation.

Times recommends

• Britain's top 10 New Year's Day brunches
• Mozambique's lost islands
• The best things to see and do in 2010