Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:270
Date: 1999-06-01
Language of the case: German
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Competition;Agreements, decisions and concerted practices;Free movement of goods;Measures having equivalent effect;Quantitative restrictions;Freedom to provide services;Dominant position
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
Competition — Public undertakings or undertakings to which States grant special or 
exclusive rights — Undertakings with responsibility for the management of services of 
general economic interest — Postal service — Imposition of internal taxes in order to 
offset the costs of processing and delivering incoming trans-border mail posted in large 
quantities with the postal services of another Member State — Whether compatible with 
the rules of the Treaty — Limits 
(EC Treaty, Art. 59 (now, after amendment, Art. 49 EC) and Arts 86 and 90(1) (now Arts 
82 EC and 86(1) EC» 
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SUMMARY — JOINED CASES C-147/97 AND C-148/97 
In the absence of an agreement between the 
postal services of the Member States con­
cerned fixing terminal dues in relation to 
the actual costs of processing and delivering 
incoming trans-border mail, it is not con­
trary to Article 90 of the Treaty (now 
Article 86 EC), read in conjunction with 
Article 86 of the Treaty (now Article 82 
EC) and Article 59 of the Treaty (now, after 
amendment, Article 49 EC), for a body 
such as Deutsche Post to exercise the right 
provided for by Article 25(3) of the Uni­
versal Postal Convention, in the version 
adopted on 14 December 1989, to charge, 
in the cases referred to in the second 
sentence of Article 25(1) and Article 25(2) 
thereof, internal postage on items of mail 
posted in large quantities with the postal 
services of a Member State other than the 
Member State to which that body belongs. 
On the other hand, the exercise of such a 
right is contrary to Article 90(1) of the 
Treaty, read in conjunction with Article 86 
thereof, in so far as the result is that such a 
body may demand the entire internal 
postage applicable in the Member State to 
which it belongs without deducting the 
terminal dues corresponding to those items 
of mail paid by the abovementioned postal 
services. 
(see paras 61 and operative part) 
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