Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:104
Date: 2000-02-24
Language of the case: French
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Fruit and vegetables
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment 
Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Fruit and vegetables — Produ­
cers' organisations — Imposition of fees on non-member producers of fresh products — 
Exemption for non-member producers of products intended for processing — Whether 
permissible — Infringement of the principle of non-discrimination — No infringement 
(Regulation No 1035/72 of the Council, Art. 15b(1) and (8)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-117/99 
Article 15b(8) of Regulation No 1035/72 
on the common organisation of the market 
in fruit and vegetables, as amended by 
Regulation No 3284/83, must be inter­
preted as meaning that, where a Member 
State has applied Article 15b(1) of that 
regulation, that is to say where it has made 
certain rules on production and marketing 
adopted by a producers' organisation bind­
ing on producers established in the district 
who do not belong to that organisation, it 
is entitled to exempt certain non-member 
producers from the payment of fees, in 
respect of a given product, in so far as the 
goods produced by them are intended for 
industrial processing rather than for the 
fresh-produce market. 
Since the situations in issue are objectively 
different — concerning as they do products 
supplied to the fresh-produce market and 
products intended for processing — the 
fact that they are treated differently does 
not infringe the general principle of non­
discrimination. 
(see paras 27-28 and operative part) 
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