Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2011:294
Date: 2011-05-12
Language of the case: Polish
Court formation: Second Chamber
Subject matter: Accession
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Poland

summary is set out of the methods and criteria useful in defining the market, for assessing significant market power and for designating undertakings as having significant market power. In essence, this is a summary of the relevant case-law, supplemented with an overview of three Commission communications published, in Polish, in the Official Journal of the European Union: (i) Commission Notice on the definition of relevant market for the purposes of Community competition law (OJ 1997 C 372, p. 5, and the special Polish edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, Volume 1, Chapter 8, p. 155); (ii) Guidelines on the application of EEC competition rules in the telecommunications sector (OJ 1991 C 233, p. 2, and the special Polish edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, Volume 1, Chapter 8, p. 43); and (iii) Notice on the application of the competition rules to access agreements in the telecommunications sector – framework, relevant markets and principles (OJ 1998, C 265, p. 2, and the special Polish edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, Volume 1, Chapter 8, p. 255). 33 The last three sections are more directly related to the implementation of Directive 2002/21. The fourth section, which is entitled ‘Imposition, maintenance, amendment or withdrawal of obligations under the regulatory framework’, is designed to provide NRAs with guidance on the measures they should take following the analysis of the competitive nature of the market. The fifth and sixth sections concern, respectively, the powers of investigation and cooperation procedures for the purpose of market analysis, and the procedures for consultation and publication of proposed NRA decisions. As well as rehearsing the relevant provisions of the applicable regulatory framework, those three sections are designed to describe the working of the cooperation procedures between the NRAs, the national competition authorities and the Commission. 34 It follows from those factors that the 2002 Guidelines do not lay down any obligation capable of being imposed, directly or indirectly, on individuals. Accordingly, the fact that those guidelines have not been published in Polish in the Official Journal of the European Union does not prevent the NRA of the Republic of Poland from referring to them in a decision addressed to an individual. 35 Moreover, those guidelines were published in 2002 in the ‘C’ series of the Official Journal of the European Union. By contrast with the ‘L’ series of the Official Journal, the ‘C’ series is not intended for the publication of legally binding measures, but only of information, recommendations and opinions concerning the European Union. 36 Nevertheless, PTC submits that, since those guidelines were published in 2002 in the Official Journal of the European Union, they must, in accordance with Article 58 of the 2003 Act of Accession, also be published in the official languages of the new Member States, including Polish. 37 It should be pointed out, however, that Article 58 of the 2003 Act of Accession does not require the Council, the Commission or the European Central Bank to translate into the nine new languages listed in that provision all the acts of the institutions and the European Central Bank adopted prior to the accession of the new Member States. Article 58, which lays down the rules on the use of languages and on the conditions concerning the publication of acts adopted by the institutions and the European Central Bank prior to that accession, merely provides that, of those acts, only measures which were drawn up in languages of the new Member States which constitute official EU languages are to be authentic, as from accession, under the same conditions as legislation drawn up in the other official languages and are to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union whenever that legislation was to be so published. Accordingly, Article 58 implies that the Member States and the institutions are to select acts for publication in the Official Journal and does not rule out the possibility that certain acts may not be published. Consequently, Article 58 of the 2003 Act of Accession does not require the Polish-language version of the 2002 Guidelines to be published in the Official Journal. 38 It should be noted, moreover, that the Court has already rejected the existence of a general principle of EU law under which anything that might affect the interests of an EU citizen must be drawn up in his language in all circumstances (see, to that effect, Case C‑361/01 P Kik v OHIM [2003] ECR I‑8283, paragraphs 82 and 83). 39 In the light of the foregoing, the answer to the question referred is that Article 58 of the 2003 Act of Accession must be interpreted as not precluding an NRA from referring to the 2002 Guidelines in a decision by which that NRA imposes certain regulatory obligations on an operator of electronic communications services, notwithstanding the fact that those guidelines have not been published in the Official Journal of the European Union in the language of the Member State in question, even though that language is an official language of the European Union. Costs 40 Since these proceedings are, for the parties to the main proceedings, a step in the action pending before the national court, the decision on costs is a matter for that court. Costs incurred in submitting observations to the Court, other than the costs of those parties, are not recoverable. On those grounds, the Court (Second Chamber) hereby rules: Article 58 of the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic to the European Union and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded must be interpreted as not precluding an NRA from referring to the Commission Guidelines on market analysis and the assessment of significant market power under the Community regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services in a decision by which that NRA imposes certain regulatory obligations on an operator of electronic communications services, notwithstanding the fact that those guidelines have not been published in the Official Journal of the European Union in the language of the Member State in question, even though that language is an official language of the Union. [Signatures] * Language of the case: Polish.