Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Preliminary rulings ° Jurisdiction of the Court ° Limits ° Question manifestly irrelevant

(EEC Treaty, Art. 177)

2. Agriculture ° Common organization of the markets ° Wine ° Description and presentation of wines ° Sparkling wines ° Reference to the method of production known as "méthode champenoise" ° Prohibition of use by wines not entitled to the registered designation "Champagne" ° Property right ° Freedom to exercise a trade or profession ° Equal treatment ° Breach ° None ° Discretion of the institutions

(Council Regulation No 2333/92, Art. 6(5), second and third subparas)

Summary

1. When a question on the validity of a measure adopted by the Community institutions is raised before a national court, it is for that court to decide whether a decision on the matter is necessary to enable it to give judgment and consequently whether it should request the Court to rule on that question. It is then a matter for the Court, within the framework of the close cooperation with national courts established by Article 177 of the Treaty, to reply to the question submitted by the national court, unless it should appear to it that the question submitted has no connection with the reality or subject-matter of the dispute in the main proceedings.

2. The prohibition of the use of reference to the method of production known as "méthode champenoise" for wines not entitled to the registered designation "Champagne", as laid down in the second and third subparagraphs of Article 6(5) of Regulation No 2333/92 laying down general rules for the description and presentation of sparking wines and aerated sparkling wines, cannot be regarded as an infringement of an alleged property right vested in a particular wine producer if the designation "méthode champenoise" is a term which, prior to the adoption of that regulation, all producers of sparkling wines were entitled to use.

Nor does that prohibition impair the very substance of the right freely to exercise a trade or profession of wine producers who will in future be required to refrain from using that reference, since it affects only the arrangements governing the exercise of that right and does not jeopardize its very existence. It is therefore permissible in so far as it seeks to achieve an objective of general interest, does not affect the position of those producers in a disproportionate manner and consequently falls within the Council' s discretion in matters relating to the common agricultural policy.

In that connection, it appears that, in order to achieve the objective of general interest represented by the protection of registered designations or indications of the geographical origin of wines, the Council was entitled to regard it as essential that the final consumer should have accurate information and that the producer should be unable to derive advantage, for his own product, from a reputation established for a similar product by producers from a different region. This involved the prohibition which the Council has imposed, in which it also included transitional arrangements and the possibility of recourse to alternative expressions in order to take account of the position of producers to whom the prohibition was to apply.

Nor does the prohibition in question breach the principle of equality in so far as the fact that certain producers are entitled to use the registered designation "Champagne" is an objective matter which can justify a difference in treatment vis-à-vis producers of sparkling wine.