Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:574
Date: 1998-11-26
Language of the case: Italian
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Milk products
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

SUMMARY — CASE C-288/97 
2. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Milk and milk products — Additional 
levy on milk — Purchaser's liability to pay the levy — Deduction of the amount of the levy 
from the price of milk paid to the producer — Whether obligatory — No such obligation 
(Council Regulation No 3950/92, Art. 2(2)) 
1. For the purposes of Articles 2(2) and 9(e) 
of Regulation No 3950/92 establishing an 
additional levy in the milk and milk prod­
ucts sector, the term purchaser is to be 
interpreted as covering any intermediary 
undertaking which acquires milk from a 
producer under a contract, irrespective of 
the manner in which the producer is paid, 
for the purpose either of treating or pro­
cessing the milk itself or of transferring it 
to another undertaking for treatment or 
processing and which, in the event that 
the undertaking in question is a collection 
of cooperatives which are themselves pur­
chasers, carries out on behalf of those 
cooperatives the administrative and 
accounting operations necessary for pay­
ment of the levy, and in particular the 
operations referred to in Article 7 of Regu­
lation No 536/93 laying down detailed 
rules on the application of the levy. 
2. Article 2(2) of Regulation N o 3950/92 
establishing an additional levy in the milk 
and milk products sector is to be under­
stood as meaning that, whilst purchasers 
are entitled to deduct from the price of 
milk paid to a producer the amount owed 
by that producer by way of additional 
levy, they are under no obligation in that 
regard. 
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