Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2017:506
Date: 2017-06-29
Language of the case: Spanish
Subject matter: Intellectual, industrial and commercial property;Approximation of laws
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Spain

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber), 19 October 2017 1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Interpretation sought owing to the applicability of the provisions of a directive that have been transposed into national law to situations not governed by EU law — Jurisdiction to provide such an interpretation (Art. 267 TFEU; European Parliament and Council Directive 2005/29, Arts 2 and 3) 2. Approximation of laws — Unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices — Directive 2005/29 — National legislation laying down a general prohibition of offering for sale or selling goods at a loss and the grounds of derogation from that prohibition that are based on criteria not appearing in that directive — Not permissible (European Parliament and Council Directive 2005/29, Arts 5 to 9) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 28-33) 2. Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market and amending Council Directive 84/450/EEC and Directives 97/7/EC, 98/27/EC and 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council (‘Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’) must be interpreted as precluding a national provision, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which contains a general prohibition on offering for sale or selling goods at a loss and which lays down grounds of derogation from that prohibition that are based on criteria not appearing in that directive. In that regard, the Court has held that the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive fully harmonises the rules relating to unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices and that the Member States may therefore not adopt stricter measures than those provided for in the directive, as expressly laid down in Article 4 thereof, even in order to achieve a higher level of consumer protection (see, to that effect, judgment of 14 January 2010, Plus Warenhandelsgesellschaft, C‑304/08, EU:C:2010:12, paragraph 41, and order of 30 June 2011, Wamo, C‑288/10, EU:C:2011:443, paragraph 33). (see paras 39, 43, operative part)