EUR-Lex - 61999B0011(01) - EN
Avis juridique important
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61999B0011(01)
Order of the Court of First Instance (Fifth Chamber) of 15 September 1999.
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Firma Léon Van Parijs NV, Pacific Fruit Company NV, Pacific Fruchtimport GmbH and Pacific Fruit Company Italy SpA v Commission of the European Communities.
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Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Bananas - Action for annulment - Persons individually concerned - Restricted group of operators - Inadmissibility.
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Case T-11/99.
European Court reports 1999 Page II-02653
Summary
Keywords
Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Regulation laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation No 404/93 regarding imports of bananas into the Community - Rules applicable to both `traditional operators' and `newcomers' - Action brought by traditional operators responsible for a significant number of the imports from a particular non-member country - Inadmissible (EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para. (now, after amendment, Art. 230, fourth para., EC); Council Regulation No 404/93; Commission Regulation No 2362/98)
Summary
$$An action for annulment is inadmissible when brought by traditional operators - banana importers who belong to a group from a non-member country which accounts for a significant volume of the bananas imported into the Community - in respect of Regulation No 2362/98 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation No 404/93 regarding imports of bananas into the Community. The general scope and hence the legislative nature of a measure are not called in question by the fact that it is possible to determine, with a greater or lesser degree of precision, the number or even the identity of the persons to whom it applies at a given moment, so long as it is established that it is applied by virtue of an objective legal or factual situation defined by the measure in relation to its objective.
All traditional operators and new operators who satisfy the necessary conditions laid down in Regulation No 2632/98 are entitled to apply for import licences for bananas originating in the countries to which part of the tariff quota was allocated. Consequently, the applicants, traditional operators, are affected by the provisions in question precisely by virtue of a situation objectively determined by the contested regulation in relation to the objective of that regulation. The fact that certain operators are economically more affected by a measure than their competitors does not suffice for them to be regarded as individually concerned by that measure, since it does not affect them on account of certain characteristics which are specific to them or on account of a factual situation which differentiates them from all other persons.