Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1999:129
Date: 1999-03-11
Language of the case: English
Court formation: Sixth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Plant health legislation
Concepts: Plant protection products
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: United Kingdom

Summary of the Judgment 
Agriculture — Approximation of laws — Placing of plant protection products on the market — 
Directive 91/414 — Product imported from a State belonging to the European Economic Area in 
which it is already covered by marketing authorisation granted in accordance with Directive 
91/414 — Identical to a product already authorised in the territory of the Member State of impor­
tation — Whether a new marketing authorisation is necessary — Not necessary — Where a 
product is imported from a third country and is not covered by marketing authorisation granted 
in accordance with the directive — Member State of importation required to grant an authorisa­
tion only under the conditions laid down by the directive — Where such a product is identical to 
a product already authorised — Not relevant 
(Council Directive 91/414) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-100/96 
Where the competent authority of a Member 
State finds that a plant protection product 
imported from a State belonging to the Euro­
pean Economic Area, in which it is already 
covered by marketing authorisation granted 
in accordance with Directive 91/414 con­
cerning the placing of plant protection prod­
ucts on the market, is not identical in all 
respects to a product already authorised within 
the Member State of importation, but at least 
— shares a common origin with that product 
in that it has been manufactured by the 
same company or by an associated under­
taking or under licence according to the 
same formulation, 
— was manufactured using the same active 
ingredient, and 
— has the same effects (bearing in mind dif­
ferences which may exist in conditions 
relating to agriculture, plant health and 
the environment, in particular climatic 
conditions, relevant to the use of the 
product), 
it must be possible for that product to benefit 
from the marketing authorisation already 
granted in the Member State of importation, 
unless this is precluded by considerations 
concerning the protection of human and 
animal health and of the environment. 
The same authority may grant marketing 
authorisation for a plant protection product 
which is imported from a third country and 
is not already covered by such authorisation 
granted in accordance with the provisions of 
Directive 91/414 in another Member State, 
but only under the conditions laid down by 
the directive. Such a product does not pro­
vide the same guarantees with regard to pro­
tection of human and animal health and of 
the environment as those afforded by aproduct 
imported from a Member State of the Com­
munity or from a State belonging to the 
European Economic Area in which it has 
already been granted marketing authorisation 
in accordance with the directive. In that con­
nection, there is at present no harmonisation 
at international level of the conditions in 
which plant protection products may be placed 
on the market, nor any general principle of 
the free movement of goods comparable to 
that prevailing within the Community and 
endorsed by the latter. Thus, the directive 
applies to the placing on the market in a 
Member State of a plant protection product 
imported from a third country, even if the 
competent authorities of the Member State of 
importation consider that product to be iden­
tical to a master plant protection product 
already authorised in accordance with the 
directive. 
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