Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2003:284
Date: 2003-05-15
Language of the case: Spanish
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Sugar
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Spain

SUMMARY — CASE C-416/01 
Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Application of national 
competition law — Competence of national authorities — Restrictions 
(Arts 32 EC to 38 EC; Council Regulation No 26) 
2. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Sugar — Production quo­
tas — Decision of national competent authority when approving a merger of sugar 
undertakings to require a reallocation of quotas — Reallocation for consideration — 
Not permissible 
(Council Regulation No 1785/81, Art. 25(1), Regulation No 193/82, Art. 4, and 
Regulation No 1260/2001) 
1. Although the Member States are 
empowered to apply their national 
competition law in a sector covered 
by a common organisation of the 
markets, they must observe the prin­
ciples and general rules governing the 
common agricultural policy and refrain 
from taking any measures which might 
undermine or create exceptions to the 
common organisation of the markets 
concerned. 
(see para. 54) 
2. If, in the exercise of its power of 
administrative review of a merger of 
undertakings, the competent authority 
of a Member State deems it necessary 
to redistribute sugar production quotas 
among undertakings situated in its 
territory in order to safeguard compe­
tition, the provisions of Council Regu­
lation No 1785/81 on the common 
organisation of the markets in the 
sugar sector and Regulation No 193/82 
laying down general rules for transfer 
of quotas in the sugar sector preclude 
that authority from stipulating that 
such a transfer or reallocation of quo­
tas should be for value. 
The system of quotas constitutes a 
mechanism for regulating the market 
in the sugar sector which aims to 
ensure the attainment of public-interest 
objectives. Those characteristics of the 
system of quotas in the sugar sector 
mean that the quotas cannot be trans­
ferred from one undertaking to another 
for consideration, in accordance with 
market forces. The public sale of quo­
tas, in so far as it would be wholly 
based on financial considerations, 
would not take account of public-inter­
est objectives laid down in the Com­
munity legislation in the sugar sector 
and would therefore not enable the 
national authorities to ensure observ­
ance of the conditions laid down in 
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ACOR 
those provisions. Furthermore, transfer 
for consideration would confer on 
undertakings purchasing quotas 
ownership over them. However, the 
existence of such a right would affect 
the discretion available to Member 
States in the exercise of the powers, 
as regards quotas, conferred on them 
by Community provisions. Such 
ownership would therefore affect the 
flexibility inherent in a mechanism for 
the regulation of the market such as the 
quotas in the sugar sector, which are 
capable of varying over time depending 
on the situation of the market or the 
needs of the common agricultural pol­
icy. 
In that connection, the entry into force 
of Regulation No 1260/2001 on the 
common organisation of the markets in 
the sugar sector, inasmuch as it repro­
duces the content of the relevant provi­
sions of the above regulations which it 
replaces, does not alter the interpre­
tation of the Community regulation. 
(see paras 47-50, 62, 65-66, 
operative part 1-2) 
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