Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:283
Date: 2002-05-07
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment 
Freedom of movement for persons — Freedom of establishment — Data-processing 
centres which prepare and print pay slips — National legislation requiring undertakings 
with less than 250 employees to have recourse to centres established and staffed 
exclusively by persons registered with certain professional associations — Not permis­
sible — Whether justifiable — No justification 
(Art. 43 EC) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-79/01 
Article 43 EC is to be interpreted as 
meaning that it precludes legislation of a 
Member State which requires undertakings 
with less than 250 employees which wish to 
entrust the preparation and printing of 
their pay slips to data-processing centres 
to have recourse only to those established 
and staffed exclusively by persons regis­
tered with certain professional associations 
in that Member State if, under that legis­
lation, undertakings with more than 250 
employees may entrust such activities to 
data-processing centres on the sole con­
dition that they are assisted by one or more 
such persons. 
Even if such legislation is not directly 
discriminatory, it constitutes, for an econ­
omic operator established in another 
Member State, an obstacle to the carry­
ing-on of his business of preparation and 
printing of pay slips through an undertak­
ing in the Member State concerned, which 
constitutes a restriction within the meaning 
of Article 43 EC. 
Where they apply to any person or under­
taking carrying on an activity in the 
territory of the host Member State, such 
measures may be justified where they serve 
overriding requirements relating to the 
public interest, such as the protection of 
workers, provided that they are suitable for 
securing the attainment of the objective 
which they pursue and do not go beyond 
what is necessary in order to attain it. 
In that regard, since data-processing centres 
which are not established and staffed only 
by persons registered with certain profes­
sional associations may offer services of 
calculating and printing pay slips to under­
takings with more than 250 employees, 
who do not appear to require less pro­
tection in that regard than those who work 
for undertakings with smaller work forces, 
and since the tasks in question cannot be 
any less complex when the number of 
salaried staff concerned increases, such 
legislation goes, in any event, beyond what 
is necessary to attain the objective of 
protection of the rights of workers. 
(see paras. 27-28, 36-37, 39, 
operative part) 
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