Order — ECLI:EU:T:2004:255
Date: 2004-09-06
Language of the case: English
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Approximation of laws
Concepts: Applications by natural or legal persons
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: France

Summary of the Order
1. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual
concern to them — Legislative measure — Directive
(Art. 230, fourth para., EC)
II - 3047
SUMMARY — CASE T-213/02
2. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual
concern to them — Legislative measure — Action brought by an economic operator
operating in the sector affected and belonging to a restricted circle — Inadmissible
(Art. 230, fourth para., EC)
3. Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons— Measures of direct and individual
concern to them — Directive 2002/34 restricting the use of polyacrylamides in the
composition of cosmetic products — Action by an undertaking which is the holder of a
patent filed in a Member Statefor the manufacture ofpolyacrylamides — Inadmissibility
(Art. 230, fourth para., EC; Commission Directive 2002/34)
1. Although the fourth paragraph of Article
230 EC makes no express provision
regarding the admissibility of actions
brought by private persons for annul­
ment of a directive, that fact is not
sufficient to render such an action
inadmissible. Moreover, the Community
institutions cannot exclude, merely by
the choice of the form of the act in
question, the judicial protection afforded
to individuals under that provision of the
Treaty. Further, in certain circum­
stances, even a legislative measure which
applies to economic operators generally
may be of direct and individual concern
to some of them.
(see paras 54, 55)
2. The possibility of determining more or
less precisely the number or even the
identity of the persons to whom a
legislative measure applies by no means
implies that those persons must be
regarded as individually concerned by
that measure, within the meaning of the
fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC, as
long as it is established that such
application takes effect by virtue of an
objective legal or factual situation
defined by the measure in question.
Therefore, the mere fact of being con­
cerned as an undertaking operating in
the sector affected by a measure does
not suffice for that undertaking to be
regarded as individually concerned in
the absence, in particular, of an addi­
II - 3048
SNF v COMMISSION
tional factor, namely a causal link
between the operator in question and
the intervention of the institution show­
ing that when it adopted the contested
measure the institution determined the
treatment to be accorded to it.
It follows that in the context of an action
for annulment of a directive which
applies to objectively defined situations
and gives rise to legal effects in respect
of categories of persons defined in
general or abstract terms, it matters
little that the operators concerned are
limited in number, in so far as that circle
is not closed when the contested direc­
tive was adopted, since there is nothing
in that directive to preclude undertak­
ings which were not yet active prior to
its adoption from deciding subsequently
to carry on the activity concerned by the
directive.
(see paras 59-63)
3. An action brought by the holder of a
patent filed in a Member State for the
manufacture of solid Polyacrylamides for
use in the cosmetic industry contrary to
Directive 2002/34 adapting to technical
progress Annexes II, III and VII to
Council Directive 76/768 on the approx­
imation of the laws of the Member
States, relating to cosmetic products, is
inadmissible in so far as it limits the use
of Polyacrylamides in the composition of
cosmetic products. The applicant does
not have an exclusive right to produce a
'cosmetic product' as defined by Article
1 of Directive 76/768 and therefore is
not affected by the contested directive in
its capacity as the proprietor of exclusive
rights, but merely as a manufacturer of
raw materials or ingredients used in the
manufacture of cosmetic products in the
same way as any other operator manu­
facturing those raw materials or ingre­
dients. Furthermore, its exclusive rights
are still valid and the exploitation of
them is not necessarily limited to
cosmetic products but may also apply
to pharmaceutical, veterinary and deter­
gent products.
(see paras 67, 69, 70)
II - 3049