Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2004:40
Date: 2004-02-11
Language of the case: Portuguese
Court formation: Fourth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Food aid;External relations
Concepts: Food aid
Procedure: Arbitration clause - unfounded
Origin: Portugal

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Food aid — Implementation — 
Delivery of products — Transfer of the burden of risk from the supplier to the 
recipient — Point of departure — Goods actually made available after unloading — 
Effects 
(Commission Regulation No 2200/87, Art. IS) 
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SUMMARY — CASE T-259/01 
2. Agriculture — Common agricultural policy — Food aid — Implementation — 
Delivery of products — Rights and obligations arising from the award not trans­
missible — Effect — Successful tenderer's responsibility maintained when transport 
handled by another undertaking 
(Commission Regulations Nos 2200/87, Art. 12(3) and 2608/97) 
1. Where delivery is to be made 'free-at-
destination', Article 15 of Regulation 
No 2200/87 laying down general rules 
for the mobilisation in the Community 
of products to be supplied as Commu­
nity food aid links the transfer from 
supplier to beneficiary of the burden of 
the risks to which the goods may be 
exposed to their being actually made 
available, after unloading, inside the 
warehouse at their destination. These 
risks cover all loss and damage to 
which the goods may be exposed. As 
regards the contractual relationship 
between the Commission and the suc­
cessful tenderer, it is accordingly 
unnecessary to establish the reasons 
for which any losses of goods may have 
arisen, if they arose before the actual 
supply of the goods to the warehouse at 
their destination. 
Likewise, if the unloading of the goods 
in the warehouses at their destination is 
incorrectly handled, it is the duty of the 
carrier, as the successful tenderer's 
representative, to act so as to avoid 
any errors in the calculation and the 
unloading of the different boxes 
coming from the different containers. 
Given that the risk in the goods 
remains with the successful tenderer 
up to the time when the goods are 
actually unloaded and placed in the 
warehouse at their destination, the 
successful tenderer, or its represen­
tative, is also under a duty to ensure 
that unloading is properly carried out. 
(see paras 46, 47, 64) 
2. Article 12(3) of Regulation No 2200/87 
laying down general rules for the 
mobilisation in the Community of 
products to be supplied as Community 
food aid provides that 'the rights and 
obligations arising from the award 
shall not be transmissible'. The fact 
that carriage of the goods was handled 
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NUTRINVESTE v COMMISSION 
by an undertaking other than the 
successful tenderer thus does not alter 
in any way the successful tenderer's 
duty to deliver the quantity agreed in 
the contract to the place specified in 
Regulation No 2608/97 on the supply 
of vegetable oil as food aid. 
There is no need in this regard to 
establish the reasons for the delay in 
unloading and actually making the 
goods available inside the warehouses 
at their destination, as the goods were 
under the control of the successful 
tenderer who, accordingly, should have 
organised their monitoring during 
these operations. 
(see paras 55, 56) 
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