Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:144
Date: 2001-03-08
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition;Agreements, decisions and concerted practices
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded;Appeal - inadmissible;Action for failure to act
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Appeals — Grounds — Challenge to grounds of a judgment which have no effect on 
the operative part of the judgment — Inoperative plea 
(EC Statute of the Court of justice, Art. 49(1)) 
2. Appeals — Grounds — Plea challenging the decision of the Court of First Instance on 
costs — Inadmissible where all other pleas rejected 
(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51(2)) 
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SUMMARY — JOINED CASES C-302/99 P AND C-308/99 P 
1. In an appeal against a judgment of the 
Court of First Instance, a plea directed 
against certain grounds of the judg­
ment which have no effect on its 
operative part is inoperative and must 
be rejected. 
Thus, where the grounds of a judgment 
of the Court of First Instance explain 
that an action for failure to act has 
ceased to have any purpose because the 
institution has expressed its position 
after proceedings were commenced and 
where the grounds, by themselves, 
provide a sufficient legal basis for the 
Court's decision that there is no need to 
give judgment, a plea in an appeal 
directed against grounds which deal 
with the admissibility of the action for 
failure to act is inoperative and must be 
dismissed. Such grounds have no effect 
on the operative part of the judgment 
under appeal, it being clear from the 
case-law of the Court of Justice that, 
where the Court decides that there is 
no need to give judgment in an action 
which has ceased to have any purpose, 
it is not necessary for it to examine the 
admissibility of that action. 
(see paras 26-29) 
2. Where all the other pleas put forward 
in an appeal have been rejected, any 
plea challenging the decision of the 
Court of First Instance on costs must be 
rejected as inadmissible by virtue of the 
second paragraph of Article 51 of the 
Statute of the Court of Justice, which 
provides that no appeal shall lie regard­
ing only the amount of the costs or the 
party ordered to pay them. 
(see para. 31) 
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