Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2006:175
Date: 2006-03-14
Language of the case: German
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Area of freedom, security and justice;Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary of the Judgment Judicial cooperation in civil matters – Jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters – Regulation No 44/2001 (Council Regulation No 44/2001, Art. 6(1)) Article 6(1) of Regulation No 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters must be interpreted as meaning that that provision may be relied on in the context of an action brought in a Member State against a defendant domiciled in that State and a co-defendant domiciled in another Member State even when that action is regarded under a national provision as inadmissible from the time it is brought in relation to the first defendant, such as a rule precluding creditors from bringing individual actions against a debtor who has been declared bankrupt. First, that provision does not include any express reference to the application of domestic rules or any requirement that an action brought against a number of defendants should be admissible, by the time it is brought, in relation to each of those defendants under national law. Second, since it is not one of the provisions which provide expressly for the application of domestic rules and thus serve as a legal basis therefor, that provision cannot be interpreted in such a way as to make its application dependent on the effects of domestic rules. However, that same provision cannot be interpreted in such a way as to allow a plaintiff to make a claim against a number of defendants for the sole purpose of removing one of them from the jurisdiction of the courts of the Member State in which that defendant is domiciled. (see paras 27, 30-33, operative part)