Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:482
Date: 2000-09-21
Language of the case: Italian
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Oils and fats
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Principles — Criterion for 
determining the origin of an agricultural product — No general principle defining that 
origin by reference to the geographical area where it was grown 
(Council Regulations N os 2392/89 and 2081/92) 
I-11535 
SUMMARY — CASE C-99/99 
2. Agriculture — Common organisation of themarkets •—• Oils and fats — Olive oil — 
Marketing within the Community •—• Conditions — Commission's discretion •—• 
judicial review — Limits 
(Council Regulation No 136/66, Art. 35a) 
1. The specific criteria laid down by 
Regulation No 2081/92 on the protec­
tion of geographical indications and 
designations of origin for agricultural 
products and foodstuffs with regard to 
geographical indications and designa­
tions of origin for agricultural products 
refer to specified homogeneous geogra­
phical areas and cannot be converted 
into general rules applicable irrespec­
tive of the size and heterogeneity of the 
areas concerned. Similarly, the rules 
laid down by Regulation No 2392/89 
laying down general rules for the 
description and presentation of wines 
and grape musts were established 
having regard to the specific character­
istics of those products and cannot be 
regarded as applicable to all agricul­
tural products in general. It follows 
that it is not possible to derive from 
those provisions a general principle 
that the origin of different agricultural 
products should be defined in uniform 
and mandatory terms by reference to 
the geographical area in which they 
were grown. 
(see para. 24) 
2. Where the Commission enjoys signifi­
cant freedom of assessment, as in the 
case of the powers conferred on it by 
Article 35a of Regulation No 136/66 
on the establishment of a common 
organisation of the market in oils and 
fats, as amended by Regulation 
No 1915/87, the Community judic­
ature, when examining the lawfulness 
of the exercise of such freedom, cannot 
substitute its own assessment of the 
matter for that of the competent 
authority but must restrict itself to 
examining whether the assessment of 
the competent authority contains a 
manifest error or constitutes a misuse 
of powers. 
(see paras 25-26) 
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