Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2002:18
Date: 2002-01-29
Language of the case: Dutch
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;External relations;Fruit and vegetables;Commercial policy;Bananas
Concepts: General
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment 
Actions for annulment — Actionable measures — Definition — Measures producing 
binding legal effects — Position taken by the Commission in the verification process 
leading to determination by the national authorities of the quantity of bananas to be 
allocated to traders — No binding legal effects — Excluded — Account thereof taken 
by the national authority to which the measure was addressed — Immaterial 
(Art. 230 EC; Commission Regulation No 1442/93, Art. 6, second para.) 
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SUMMARY — CASE T-160/98 
Measures which produce binding legal 
effects capable of affecting an applicant's 
interests by bringing about a significant 
change in his legal position are acts or 
decisions against which an action for 
annulment may be brought under 
Article 230 EC. To ascertain whether an 
act or decision has effects of that kind, it is 
necessary to examine its substance. 
It follows from the provisions of Title I of 
Regulation No 1442/93 laying down 
detailed rules for the application of the 
arrangements for importing bananas into 
the Community and from the very nature of 
the verification process that they provide 
that a measure producing binding legal 
effects capable of affecting the interests of 
the operator concerned can come into being 
only once that process has been concluded 
and a definitive reference quantity adopted. 
The establishment of figures at earlier 
stages of the verification process amounts 
to no more than an intermediary measure 
forming part of the preparatory work 
leading to determination, by the national 
authorities, of the quantity referred to in 
the second paragraph of Article 6 of Regu­
lation No 1442/93. The Commission's 
reduction set out in a 'worksheet' cannot 
therefore be treated as a measure against 
which an action may be brought. 
In this regard, a view expressed by the 
Commission to a Member State in a 
situation in which the Commission has no 
power to take a decision is merely an 
opinion bereft of legal effects. Further, the 
non-binding nature of a position taken by 
the Commission cannot be challenged on 
the ground that the national authority to 
which the act was addressed complied with 
it, as that is no more than the consequence 
of the cooperation between the Commis­
sion and the national bodies responsible for 
the application of Community law. 
(see paras 61, 64-65) 
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