Oberster Gerichtshof, Urteil vom 22/02/2007 3 Ob 233/06w
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2007:0030OB00233.06W.0222.000
Date: 2007-02-22
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Austria

82007AT0222(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
An Austrian company was ordered by a Netherlands court to pay a certain amount of money to a Netherlands company. The latter obtained an Austrian declaration of enforceability regarding that judgment. The Austrian company appealed and, as the appeal was dismissed, it appealed on a point of law to the OGH (AT). It alleged that the Netherlands judgment infringed public policy and asserted, inter alia, that the Netherlands company had abused its dominant market position and thus had infringed EU competition law. It sought a stay of the proceedings for a declaration of enforceability due to an appeal it had lodged against the judgment in the Netherlands.
The OGH (AT) dismisses the appeal. An infringement of European public policy, as alleged by the Austrian company, requires a gross disregard of the fundamental rules of the EU by the judgment whose declaration of enforceability is sought. Such a disregard cannot already be assumed where the court of the State in which enforcement is sought holds that the original court incorrectly applied Community law. A party who disagrees with the judgment by the original court must rather have recourse to the legal remedies offered by the law of the original State. Proceedings for a declaration of enforceability can only be stayed according to Article 46 Brussels I Regulation, however not according to the subordinate rules of national law of civil procedure. The appellate court, which made enforcement conditional on the provision of security according to Article 46(3) Brussels I Regulation, has thus sufficiently met the respondent's need for protection.