Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Freedom to provide services ° Television broadcasting activities ° Directive 89/552 ° Scope ° Transmission of programmes by cable ° Included

(Council Directive 89/552, Arts 1(a) and 2(2))

2. Freedom to provide services ° Television broadcasting activities ° Directive 89/552 ° Monitoring of compliance with the provisions of the directive ° Matter for the Member State from which the broadcasts emanate ° Monitoring by the receiving Member State through requirement for cable operators to obtain authorization for retransmission ° Not permissible

(Council Directive 89/552, Art. 2)

3. Member States ° Obligations ° Unilateral action ° Prohibited

4. Actions against Member States for failure to fulfil obligations ° Subject-matter of the dispute ° Determined during the pre-litigation procedure ° Purely formal amendment of objections following the issue of the reasoned opinion, as result of changes made to the national legislation ° Permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 169)

Summary

1. Directive 89/552 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities must be interpreted as applying to the distribution of television programmes by cable.

2. Having regard to the system whereby Articles 2(1) and (2) and 3(2) of Directive 89/552 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities divide obligations between the Member States from which programmes emanate and the Member States receiving them, that directive must be interpreted as meaning, first, that it is solely for the Member State from which television broadcasts emanate to monitor the application of the law of the originating Member State applying to such broadcasts and to ensure compliance with the directive and, second, that, save in the circumstances provided for in the second sentence of Article 2(2), the receiving Member State is not authorized to exercise its own control in that regard.

Consequently, a Member State which

° maintains a system of prior authorization for the retransmission by cable of television broadcasts emanating from other Member States

° maintains a system of express, conditional prior authorization for the retransmission by cable of television broadcasts emanating from other Member States which contain commercial advertising or teleshopping programmes especially intended for viewers in that State

acts in breach of its obligations under Article 2 of the directive.

3. Under no circumstances may a Member State unilaterally adopt, on its own authority, corrective or protective measures designed to obviate any breach by another Member State of the rules laid down by the Treaty.

4. Whilst the subject-matter of an application made under Article 169 of the Treaty is circumscribed by the pre-litigation procedure provided for by that article, and the Commission' s reasoned opinion and the application to the Court must therefore be based on the same objections, that requirement cannot go so far as to make it necessary that the national provisions mentioned in the reasoned opinion and in the application should always be completely identical. Where a change in the legislation has occurred between those two procedural stages, it is sufficient that the system established by the legislation contested in the pre-litigation procedure has, on the whole, been maintained by the new measures which were adopted by the Member State after the issue of the reasoned opinion and which are challenged in the action.