Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2003:662
Date: 2003-12-11
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Freedom to provide services
Concepts: The various services;General
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Freedom to provide services — Treaty provisions — Scope — Temporary nature of 
the activities pursued — Criteria — Supply of identical or similar services with a 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-215/01 
greater or lesser degree of frequency or regularity in another Member State without 
having an infrastructure there 
(Art. SO, third para., EC) 
2. Freedom to provide services — Restrictions — Rules of a Member State which make 
the performance of services on its territory by businesses established in other Member 
States subject to a procedure for entry on the trades register — Not permissible — 
Criteria 
(Art. 49 EC) 
1. The mere fact that a business estab­
lished in one Member State supplies 
identical or similar services with a 
greater or lesser degree of frequency 
or regularity in a second Member State, 
without having an infrastructure there 
which enables it to pursue a professio­
nal activity on a stable and continuous 
basis in the second Member State and 
from which it holds itself out to, 
amongst others, nationals of the second 
Member State, is not sufficient for it to 
be regarded as established in the second 
Member State. 
'Services' within the meaning of the 
Treaty may cover services varying 
widely in nature, including services 
which are provided over an extended 
period, even over several years, where, 
for example, the services in question 
are supplied in connection with the 
construction of a large building. Ser­
vices within the meaning of the Treaty 
may likewise be constituted by services 
which a business established in a 
Member State supplies with a greater 
or lesser degree of frequency or regu­
larity, even over an extended period, to 
persons established in one or more 
other Member States, for example the 
giving of advice or information for 
remuneration. 
No provision of the Treaty affords a 
means of determining, in an abstract 
manner, the duration or frequency 
beyond which the supply of a service 
or of a certain type of service in 
another Member State can no longer 
be regarded as the provision of services 
within the meaning of the Treaty but as 
coming under the chapter relating to 
the right of establishment. 
(see paras 29-32, 40, operative part) 
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SCHNITZER 
2. Community law on freedom to provide 
services precludes a business from 
being subject to an obligation to be 
entered on the trades register which 
delays, complicates or renders more 
onerous the provision of its services in 
the host Member State if the conditions 
prescribed by the directive governing 
recognition of professional qualifi­
cations which is applicable to pursuit 
of that activity in the host Member 
State are satisfied. 
Once those conditions are satisfied, any 
entry required on the trades register of 
the host Member State cannot be other 
than automatic, and that requirement 
cannot constitute a condition precedent 
for the provision of services, result in 
administrative expense for the person 
providing them or give rise to an 
obligation to pay subscriptions to the 
chamber of trades. 
That applies not only to providers of 
services who intend to supply services 
in the host Member State only occa­
sionally, or even a single time, but also 
to those who supply or wish to supply 
services in a repeated or more or less 
regular manner. 
(see paras 37-38, 40, operative part) 
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