Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:461
Date: 1999-09-29
Language of the case: French
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment 
Freedom to provide services — Restrictions — Whether undertakings supplying a service 
may be required to pay minimum remuneration fixed by the national rules of the host 
Member State — Permissible — Conditions 
(EC Treaty, Arts 59 (now, after amendment, Art. 49 EC) and 60 (now Art. SO EC)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-165/98 
Article 59 of the Treaty (now, after amend­
ment, Article 49 EC) and Article 60 of the 
Treaty (now Article 50 EC) do not preclude 
a Member State from requiring an under­
taking established in another Member State 
which provides services in the territory of 
the first State to pay its workers the 
minimum remuneration fixed by the 
national rules of that State. The application 
of such rules might, however, prove to be 
disproportionate where the workers 
involved are employees of an undertaking 
established in a frontier region who are 
required to carry out, on a part-time basis 
and for brief periods, a part of their work 
in the territory of one, or even several, 
Member States other than that in which the 
undertaking is established. It is conse­
quently for the competent authorities of 
the host Member State to establish whether, 
and if so to what extent, application of 
national rules imposing a minimum wage 
on such an undertaking is necessary and 
proportionate in order to ensure the pro­
tection of the workers concerned. 
(see para. 41 and operative part) 
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