Order — ECLI:EU:C:2000:586
Date: 2000-10-26
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Foodstuffs;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property;Consumer protection
Concepts: Appeals;Applications by natural or legal persons
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Order 
1. Appeals — Pleas in law — Admissibility — Conditions — Submission of arguments 
also raised before the Court of First Instance — No effect 
(EC Treaty, Art. 168a (now Article 225 EC); EC Statute of the Court of Justice, 
Art. SI, first para.; Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 112(1)(c)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-447/98 P 
2. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and 
individual concern to them — Regulation registering a designation of origin covering 
a geographical area that is larger than the territory of that name 
(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para, (now, after amendment, Art. 230, fourth para. EC); 
Council Regulation No 2081/92; Commission Regulation No 123/97) 
1. Under Article 168a of the Treaty (now 
Article 225 EC), the first paragraph of 
Article 51 of the Statute of the Court of 
Justice, and Article 112(1)(c) of the 
Rules of Procedure of the Court of 
Justice, an appeal must indicate pre­
cisely the contested elements of the 
order which the appellant seeks to have 
set aside, and also the legal arguments 
specifically advanced in support. If 
those conditions are satisfied, an 
appeal may be based on arguments 
already adduced at first instance, in 
order to show that the Court of First 
Instance infringed Community law by 
rejecting the pleas and arguments 
which the appellant submitted to it, 
so that the points of law examined at 
first instance may be discussed again in 
the course of an appeal, where the 
appellant challenges the interpretation 
or application of Community law by 
the Court of First Instance. 
(see paras 53-56, 59-60) 
2. Regulation No 123/97, concerning 
registration of the name 'Altenburger 
Ziegenkäse' as a protected designation 
of origin, which confers on that name 
the protection which Regulation 
No 2081/92 on the protection of geo­
graphical indications and designations 
of origin for agricultural products and 
foodstuffs accords to all duly registered 
protected designations of origin, con­
stitutes a measure of general applica­
tion, and hence of a legislative nature, 
which applies to objectively defined 
situations and produces legal effects for 
categories of economic operators who 
satisfy a number of conditions defined 
in a general and abstract manner. Even 
if the persons to whom it applies were 
identifiable at the time when it was 
adopted and it were established that 
their number could in fact scarcely 
change, its legislative character would 
not thereby be called into question, as 
it envisages only objective legal or 
factual situations. 
It follows that Regulation No 123/97 
concerns undertakings producing the 
cheese in the geographical area defined 
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MOLKEREI GROSSBRAUNSHAIN AND BENE NAHRUNGSMITTEL V COMMISSION 
in the specification referred to in Arti­
cle 4 of Regulation No 2081/92 and 
marketing it, only in that objective 
capacity, on the same basis as any other 
economic operator currently or poten­
tially in the same position. Accordingly, 
those undertakings are not individually 
concerned by Regulation No 123/97. 
(see paras 66-69) 
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