Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:315
Date: 1999-06-17
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Free movement of goods;Measures having equivalent effect;Quantitative restrictions;Freedom to provide services;State monopolies of a commercial character
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Finland

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Free movement of goods — Treaty provisions — Scope — Fishing rights or angling 
permits — Not covered — Application of the provisions relating to the freedom to 
provide services 
(EC Treaty, Art. 9 et seq. (now, after amendment, Art. 23 EC et seq.) and Art. 59 et 
seq. (now, after amendment, Art. 49 EC et seq.)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-97/98 
2. Freedom to provide services — Treaty provisions — Not applicable in situations purely 
internal to a Member State 
(EC Treaty, Art. 59 et seq. (now, after amendment, Art. 49 EC et seq.)) 
1. Fishing rights or angling permits do not 
constitute 'goods' within the meaning 
of the provisions of the Treaty relating 
to the free movement of goods but 
form a 'provision of a service' within 
the meaning of the Treaty provisions 
relating to the freedom to provide 
services. 
The activity consisting in making fish­
ing waters available to third parties, for 
consideration and upon certain condi­
tions, so that they can fish there 
constitutes a provision of services 
which — if it has a cross-frontier 
character — is covered by Article 59 
et seq. of the Treaty (now, after amend­
ment, Article 49 EC et seq.). The fact 
that those rights or permits are set 
down in documents which, as such, 
may be the subject of trade is not 
sufficient to bring them within the 
scope of the Treaty provisions on the 
free movement of goods. 
2. The provisions of the Treaty relating to 
the freedom to provide services are not 
applicable to a situation which in all 
respects is confined within a single 
Member State and which, accordingly, 
does not present any link to one of the 
situations envisaged by Community 
law in relation to the freedom to 
provide services. 
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