DM, Flew on Delta ticket from MSP-CDG-BOM. CDG-BOM was Air France code share. CDG-BOM flight delayed by five hours due to technical issue. Filed with Delta via comments for EC 216 compensation. Received following reply " I apologize for the confusion. As of December 19, 2019, based on the European Court of Justice recent decisions, it has been determined that customers traveling from an origin outside the EU to a final destination outside the EU, will no longer have travel fall under EU 261 Regulation. This request that you have submitted is now outside the travel scope of EU 261 Regulation."
Is this true or Delta is playing hardball. I had not heard of this and google search brings up nothing about this provision. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks