Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:158
Date: 1998-04-02
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Tobacco
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgmen t 
1. Community law — Principles — Protection of legitimate expectations — Limits — Amend­
ments to rules concerning a common organisation of the market — Discretionary power of the 
institutions 
2. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Raw tobacco — System of prices and 
premiums — Determination, for a given variety, of the prices and premium for the 1991 har­
vest after sowing of the crop — Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations — 
Infringement — None 
(Council Regulations Nos 727/70, 1114/88, 1329/90 and 1738/91) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-372/96 
3. Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Discrimination between producers or 
consumers — Determination of prices and premiums in the raw tobacco sector — Difference 
of treatment according to different varieties of tobacco — No discrimination 
(EC Treaty, Art. 40(3), second subpara.; Council Regulation No 1738/91) 
1. Whilst the protection of legitimate expec­
tations is one of the fundamental prin­
ciples of the Community, traders cannot 
have a legitimate expectation that an 
existing situation which is capable of being 
altered by the Community institutions in 
the exercise of their discretionary power 
will be maintained; this is particularly true 
in an area such as the common organisa­
tion of the markets whose purpose involves 
constant adjustments to meet changes in 
the economic situation. It follows that 
traders cannot claim a vested right to the 
maintenance of an advantage which they 
derive from the establishment of the 
common organisation of the markets and 
which they enjoyed at a given time. 
2. The fact that, in the context of the common 
organisation of the market in raw tobacco, 
the prices and processing premium for the 
Burley I variety for the 1991 harvest were 
reduced, as compared with the previous 
year, by Regulation N o 1738/91, pub­
lished on a date when the planters of that 
variety had already taken their decisions 
concerning the 1991 harvest, does not con­
stitute a breach of the principle of the pro­
tection of legitimate expectations. The 
traders concerned were not entitled to 
expect the prices and premium in question 
to be maintained at a particular level, since 
Regulation N o 727/70, which required the 
Council to determine each year, having 
regard in particular to market develop­
ments and to the harmfulness of the dif­
ferent varieties of tobacco, the prices and 
premiums for such varieties, expressly pro­
vided for the possibility of a reduction in 
those prices and premiums. The same 
traders should also have expected, since 
the publication of Regulations Nos 1114/88 
and 1329/90, a second reduction in the 
prices and premiums thus determined, in 
proportion to any possible overrun of the 
maximum guaranteed quantity. 
3. The principle of non-discrimination does 
not preclude Community rules which, for 
the purpose of fixing prices and premiums 
in the raw tobacco sector, reserve for pro­
ducers of the Burley I tobacco variety 
treatment which is different and, possibly, 
less favourable than for producers of other 
varieties of tobacco. The attainment of the 
objectives pursued by the system of prices 
and premiums in that sector, in particular 
the orientation of tobacco production 
towards the varieties which are most in 
demand, most competitive and the least 
harmful to health, necessarily involves the 
adoption of measures which differ 
according to the varieties in question. 
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