Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Free movement of goods - Quantitative restrictions - Measures having equivalent effect - Justification - Protection of public health - Legal context of assessment - Article 36 of the Treaty

(EEC Treaty, Arts 30 and 36)

2. Free movement of goods - Derogations - Prohibition of discriminatory or protective measures - Scope - Measures limited to a part of the national territory - Whether included

(EEC Treaty, Art. 36)

3. Free movement of goods - Derogations - Protection of public health - Legislation of an autonomous community of a Member State prohibiting in its territory certain forms of advertising of beverages having a high alcohol content - Whether proportionate and non-discriminatory - Permissibility

(EEC Treaty, Arts 30 and 36)

Summary

1. Where it has to be assessed whether a measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction on imports may be justified by the fact that it is pursuing an objective relating to the protection of public health, it is not necessary to consider whether that objective may be equated with an imperative requirement which must be taken into account in the interpretation of Article 30 of the Treaty, since the protection of public health is expressly mentioned amongst the grounds of public interest which are set out in Article 36 and enable a restriction on imports to escape the prohibition laid down in Article 30. It is only in the light of Article 36 that that assessment is to be carried out since that article applies even where the measure in question specifically restricts imports, whereas imperative requirements fall for consideration only in the case of measures which apply without distinction to national and imported products.

2. When a national measure has limited territorial scope because it applies only to a part of the national territory, it cannot escape being characterized as discriminatory or protective for the purposes of the rules on the free movement of goods on the ground that it affects both the sale of products from other parts of the national territory and the sale of products imported from other Member States. For such a measure to be characterized as discriminatory or protective, it is not necessary for it to have the effect of favouring national products as a whole or of placing only imported products at a disadvantage and not national products.

3. Articles 30 and 36 of the Treaty, viewed together, do not preclude legislation adopted by an autonomous community of a Member State from prohibiting, in the territory to which it applies, the advertising of beverages having an alcoholic strength of more than 23 degrees in the media, on streets and highways (with the exception of signs indicating centres of production and sale), in cinemas and on public transport.

Such legislation, even if it constitutes a measure having equivalent effect within the meaning of Article 30, can be justified under Article 36. On the one hand, it is not disproportionate to the public-health objective, namely the campaign against alcoholism which it is pursuing. On the other hand, it does not constitute a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade between Member States, since it does not distinguish between products according to their origin and the restrictions which it imposes do not apply to beverages having an alcoholic strength of less than 23 degrees and therefore do not restrict imports of such beverages from other Member States since, in regard to beverages having an alcoholic strength of more than 23 degrees, those restrictions affect both products, in not inconsiderable quantities, originating in the part of the territory to which they apply and products imported from other Member States. The fact that that part of the national territory produces more beverages having an alcoholic strength of less than 23 degrees than beverages with a higher alcohol content is not in itself sufficient to cause legislation to be regarded as not satisfying the requirements of Article 36.