Order — ECLI:EU:T:2001:20
Date: 2001-01-24
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Fourth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Competition;Agreements, decisions and concerted practices;Plant health legislation;Dominant position
Concepts: Applications by natural or legal persons
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: Belgium;Spain;Greece;Portugal

Summary of the Order 
Actions for annulment — Natural or legal persons — Measures of direct and individual 
concern to them — Regulation laying down a procedure for notifying and evaluating 
active substances on the plant protection product market — Action brought by under­
takings marketing plant protection products containing active substances and an 
association to which they belong — Inadmissibility 
(Art. 230, fourth para., EC; Commission Regulation No 451/2000; Council Directive 
91/414) 
II- 97 
SUMMARY — JOINED CASES T-112/00 AND T-122/00 
Undertakings marketing plant protection 
products containing active substances can­
not be considered to be individually con­
cerned by Regulation No 451/2000 laying 
down the detailed rules for the implemen­
tation of the second and third stages of the 
work programme referred to in Article 8(2) 
of Directive 91/414 in that it lays down the 
procedure for notifying and evaluating a 
certain number of active substances. First, 
since, in the majority of Member States 
economic operators have to be holders of 
an authorisation to place products on the 
market in order to be able to market plant 
protection products containing active sub­
stances, the fact of holding such an author­
isation does not constitute a particular 
attribute or a specific factual situation of 
a nature such as to identify the applicants 
individually in a manner similar to that in 
which the addresses of a decision would be 
identified. Secondly, the fact that certain 
operators are more affected by a measure 
than their competitors is not sufficient for 
them to be regarded as individually con­
cerned by the measure. 
Similarly, an association of such undertak­
ings cannot validly plead the existence of 
an individual interest of its own that is 
distinct from that of its members as a basis 
for its standing to bring proceedings. Nei­
ther Article 43 of the Treaty (now, after 
amendment, Article 37 EC), which served 
as the legal basis for the adoption of 
Directive 91/414, nor the Directive itself 
provides for the intervention of individuals 
in the adoption of the legislation in ques­
tion. The Commission was therefore not 
required to consult or hear the applicants in 
the process of adopting the contested 
regulation. Moreover, neither the process 
of preparation of legislative measures nor 
those measures themselves, as measures of 
general application, require, by virtue of 
the general principles of Community law, 
such as the right to be heard, the participa­
tion of the persons affected, since their 
interests are deemed to be represented by 
the political organs called on to adopt those 
measures 
(see paras 68, 70, 72, 77-78, 80) 
II - 98