ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
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Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Tariff quota for the importation of bananas - Regulation fixing a reduction coefficient for determining the quantity to allocate to each operator - Action brought by operators - Inadmissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 173, fourth para.; Commission Regulation No 3190/93)

Summary

The action for annulment of Regulation No 3190/93 - fixing the uniform reduction coefficient for determining the quantities of bananas to be allocated to each operator in categories A and B in the context of the tariff quota 1994 - brought by operators in the categories in question is inadmissible.

That Regulation does not have the immediate and direct effect of enabling each operator to determine the definitive reference quantity to be allocated to it. The figures notified by operators to the competent national authorities may be altered several times either by the operators themselves or by the Commission, without the changes involved being brought to the attention of the operators concerned. Consequently, an operator is not able to ascertain - on the basis of either the figures notified by it or the provisions of Regulation No 3190/93 - the reference quantity to which the reduction coefficient is to be applied.

Given that it is impossible for operators to determine their definitive quantities simply by multiplying the reference quantity known to them by the reduction coefficient fixed by Regulation No 3190/93, that Regulation may not properly be construed as a collection of individual decisions addressed to each operator, effectively informing it of the precise quantities which it will be entitled to import.
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1 Freedom of movement for persons - Freedom of establishment - Provision of national law prohibiting, where there is a risk of confusion, use of a trade name as the specific designation of an undertaking - Whether permissible - Conditions

(EC Treaty, Art. 52 (now, after amendment, Art. 43 EC))

2 Free movement of goods - Provision of national law prohibiting, where there is a risk of confusion, use of a trade name as the specific designation of an undertaking - Where the prohibition is not contrary to Article 52 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 43 EC) - Whether permissible - Conditions

(EC Treaty, Art. 30 (now, after amendment, Art. 28 EC))

Summary

1 Article 52 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 43 EC) does not preclude a provision of national law which prohibits, where there is a risk of confusion, the use of a trade name as the specific designation of an undertaking.

The prohibition operates to the detriment of undertakings whose seat is in another Member State where they lawfully use a trade name which they would like to use beyond the boundaries of that State. However, such a restriction on the right of establishment, brought about by a provision of national law whose primary aim is to safeguard trade names against the risk of confusion, is justified by overriding requirements in the general interest pertaining to the protection of industrial and commercial property. No exception can be taken under Community law to the protection granted by a national law against the risk of confusion, since it corresponds to the specific subject-matter of a trade name, that is to say, protection of the proprietor of the trade name against that risk.

2 Article 30 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 28 EC) does not preclude a provision of national law which prohibits, where there is a risk of confusion, the use of a trade name as the specific designation of an undertaking.

Since such a prohibition is not contrary to Article 52 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 43 EC) because it is justified by overriding requirements in the general interest, it could conflict with Article 30 of the Treaty only if, and to the extent that, it restricted the free movement of goods between Member States other than indirectly through the restriction of freedom of establishment. Even supposing that such a measure restricted the free movement of goods, there is nothing to suggest that the restriction does not flow indirectly from the restriction on the freedom of establishment.
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1 Tax provisions - Harmonisation of laws - Turnover taxes - Common system of value added tax - Basis of assessment - Rebates and price discounts - Meaning - 100% discount - Not covered

(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 11A(3)(b))

2 Tax provisions - Harmonisation of laws - Turnover taxes - Common system of value added tax - Taxable transactions - Handing over of goods, offered as gifts, in exchange for vouchers obtained on purchasing a product - Whether taxable - Requirement

(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 5(6))

Summary

1 On a proper construction of Article 11A(3)(b) of the Sixth Directive 77/388, regarding the factors which do not go to make up the taxable amount for VAT purposes, the terms `rebates' and `price discounts' cannot be applied to reductions covering the whole cost of supplying redemption goods.

2 Article 5(6) of the Sixth Directive 77/388 treats as a supply made for consideration a taxable person's disposal free of charge of goods forming part of his business assets, where input VAT was deductible on those goods. The application by an oil company of goods which are disposed of to a purchaser of fuel in exchange for vouchers which he has obtained in varying quantities, depending on the volume of fuel purchased, on payment of the full retail price for fuel from the pump - under a sales promotion scheme in the context of which the goods are classed as gifts and no portion of the price paid by the purchaser represents the value of the vouchers or of the goods for which they are redeemed - constitutes a disposal free of charge and must, where the goods are not of small value, be treated as a supply for consideration on which VAT is payable.
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Approximation of laws - Major-accident hazards of certain industrial activities - Directive 82/501 - Obligation on Member States to set up or appoint the competent authorities for drawing up emergency plans for action outside the establishments and organising inspections and measures of control - Scope

(Council Directive 82/501, Art. 7(1), third indent, and (2))

Summary

$$Since the objective pursued by Directive 82/501 on the major-accident hazards of certain industrial activities is to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences by means of the measures specified therein, this would be in danger of being seriously compromised if, so far as concerns their obligations under Article 7(1), third indent, and (2) of the Directive, it were open to the Member States merely to set up or appoint the competent authorities for drawing up emergency plans for action outside the establishments and organising inspections and measures of control, without ensuring that those plans and inspections were actually completed.
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1 Officials - Staff Regulations - Scope - Apportionment between divorced spouses of Community pension rights acquired by one of them - Not covered - Competence of the Member States

2 Community law - Principles - Equal treatment - Discrimination on grounds of nationality - Prohibited - Scope of that prohibition - National provisions of private international law or national provisions of civil law substantively regulating the effects of a divorce - Not covered

(EC Treaty, Art. 6 (now, after amendment, Art. 12 EC))

Summary

1 The Staff Regulations do not preclude the application, in proceedings between two former spouses, of national rules of law providing for the apportionment of pension rights between divorced spouses.

The Community legislature has no competence to lay down the rights of spouses in divorce proceedings, these being governed by the rules of private law and family law applying in the Member States and falling within the competence of those Member States. Thus, the Staff Regulations are intended only to regulate the legal relations between the European institutions and their officials, by establishing a series of reciprocal rights and obligations and by affording certain members of an official's family rights which they may assert in relation to the European Communities.

2 The prohibition, laid down by Article 6 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 12 EC), of all discrimination on grounds of nationality applies only within the Treaty's area of application. Neither the national provisions of private international law determining the substantive national law applicable to the effects of a divorce nor the national provisions of civil law substantively regulating those effects fall within the scope of the Treaty. Accordingly, Article 6 of the Treaty does not preclude the laws of a Member State regulating the consequences of divorce between an official of the Communities and his former spouse, regard being had to the spouses' nationality as a connecting factor, from causing the official concerned to bear a heavier burden than would be borne by an official of a different nationality in the same situation.
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Social policy - Men and women - Equal pay - Termination payment for workers who resign after the birth of a child where there is a lack of child-care facilities - Payment reduced in relation to that received by workers resigning for an important reason related to working conditions or to the employer's conduct - Whether this constitutes indirect discrimination - No indirect discrimination - Whether child-care facilities are private or operated by the public services - Irrelevant

(EC Treaty, Art. 119 (Arts 117 to 120 of the EC Treaty have been replaced by Arts 136 EC to 143 EC))

Summary

$$Article 119 of the Treaty (Articles 117 to 120 of the EC Treaty have been replaced by Articles 136 EC to 143 EC) does not preclude national legislation granting a termination payment to workers who end their employment relationship prematurely in order to take care of their children owing to a lack of child-care facilities for them, under which that payment is reduced in relation to that received, for the same actual period of employment, by workers who give notice of resignation for an important reason related to working conditions in the undertaking or to the employer's conduct.

The exclusion from the full termination payment of workers who resign from employment for reasons of maternity does not constitute an indirectly discriminatory measure, if it does not put them at a disadvantage in relation to other workers who are in an identical or similar situation. In this case, the groups to be compared are workers who resign for reasons of maternity, on the one hand, and those who resign without any important reason, on the other. Workers who resign for reasons of maternity are not to be compared with those who resign for an important reason related to working conditions in the undertaking or to the employer's conduct, since the situation of such workers - in which continued work is impossible - is in substance and origin different from the situation of workers who resign because of maternity.

The fact that in the Member State in question nurseries are mostly run by the public services or with their financial support is irrelevant in this connection.
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Freedom of movement for persons - Freedom of establishment - Equal treatment - Direct taxation - Special levy on turnover - Undertakings exploiting proprietary medicinal products granted tax rebates - Limited to expenditure on research carried out in the levying State - Not permissible - The general interest pleaded in justification - Effectiveness of fiscal supervision specifically pleaded in justification - No such justification

(EC Treaty, Arts 52 (now, after amendment, Art. 43 EC) and 58 (now Art. 48 EC))

Summary

$$Articles 52 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 43 EC) and 58 thereof (now Article 48 EC) preclude national legislation under which undertakings established in that State and exploiting proprietary medicinal products there are charged a special levy on pre-tax turnover derived from certain of those proprietary medicinal products during the last tax year before enactment of that legislation and are allowed to deduct from the amount payable only expenditure, incurred during the same tax year, on research carried out in the levying State, when such legislation applies to Community undertakings operating in that State through a secondary place of business.

The tax allowance in question seems likely to work more particularly to the detriment of undertakings of that kind, since, in most cases, those are the undertakings which will have developed their research activities outside the territory of the levying State. It thus leads to unequal treatment which cannot be justified by reference to the general interest - in the name of effectiveness of fiscal supervision, for instance - where that national legislation wholly prevents the taxpayer from submitting evidence that expenditure relating to research carried out in other Member States has actually been incurred.
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Freedom to provide services - Restrictions - National legislation reserving the operation of slot machines to a public body - Justification - Consumer protection and maintenance of order in society

(EC Treaty, Art. 59 (now, after amendment, Art. 49 EC))

Summary

$$National legislation which grants to a single public body exclusive rights to operate slot machines in the national territory - and which thus directly or indirectly prevents operators in other Member States from themselves making slot machines available to the public with a view to their use in return for payment - constitutes an impediment to freedom to provide services, even if it applies without distinction.

However, in so far as such legislation involves no discrimination on grounds of nationality, that impediment may be justified on grounds relating to the protection of consumers and the maintenance of order in society. Although that legislation does not prohibit the use of slot machines but reserves the running of them to a licensed public body, the power to determine the extent of the protection to be afforded by a Member State on its territory with regard to lotteries and other forms of gambling forms part of the national authorities' power of assessment. It is for those authorities, therefore, to assess whether it is necessary, in the context of the aim pursued, totally or partially to prohibit activities of that kind or merely to restrict them and, to that end, to establish control mechanisms, which may be more or less strict. In those circumstances, the mere fact that a Member State has opted for a system of protection which differs from that adopted by another Member State cannot affect the assessment of the need for, and proportionality of, the provisions enacted to that end. Those provisions must be assessed solely by reference to the objectives pursued by the national authorities of the Member State concerned and the level of protection which they are intended to provide.
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1. Acts of the institutions - Regulations - Basic regulations and implementing regulations - Power conferred on the Commission in general terms - Lawfulness

(EC Treaty, Arts 145 and 155 (now Arts 202 EC and 211 EC); Council Regulation No 3950/92, Art. 11; Commission Regulation No 536/93, Art. 3(2), second subpara.)

2. Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Imposition of a mandatory financial penalty payable for exceeding the time-limit for communication, irrespective of the length of time by which that time-limit is exceeded

(Commission Regulation No 536/93, Art. 3(2), second subpara.)

Summary

1. Although, in applying Articles 145 and 155 of the Treaty (now Articles 202 EC and 211 EC), a distinction is drawn in case-law between essential rules, which are the Council's preserve, and those which, being merely of an implementing nature, may be delegated to the Commission, only provisions intended to give concrete shape to the fundamental guidelines of Community policy must be classified as essential rules. Since the essential rules of the additional milk levy scheme have been fixed by the Council in the basic regulation, it is sufficient for a general power to be delegated to the Commission to adopt the implementing measures. In those circumstances, Article 11 of Regulation No 3950/92, which authorises the Commission to adopt all the measures which are necessary for the implementation of that regulation, must be regarded as constituting a valid delegation to the Commission to lay down the penalty referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 3(2) of Regulation No 536/93.

( see paras 21-24, 32 )

2. The second subparagraph of Article 3(2) of Regulation No 536/93 laying down detailed rules on the application of the additional levy on milk and milk products is invalid in that it imposes on the purchaser, in the event of failure to observe the time-limit referred to in the first subparagraph of that article, a financial penalty equal to the amount of the additional levy on milk due for a 0.1% overrun on the quantities of milk and milk equivalent delivered by producers, without making any provision for the length of time by which the time-limit is exceeded to be taken into account.

( see para. 45 and operative part )
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1. ECSC - Steel aid - Commission authorisation - General decisions and individual decisions- Adoption of individual decisions to authorise aid not coming under any of the categories of aid authorised by a general decision - Competence

(ECSC Treaty, Arts 4(c) and 95; Decision No 3855/91, Art. 1(1))

2. ECSC - Steel aid - Commission authorisation - Conditions - Exclusion of a principle that aid is granted once and once only

(ECSC Treaty, Art. 95, first subpara.)

Summary

1. Article 1(1) of the Fifth Steel Aid Code contains no general prohibition of aid but simply defines in general terms the scope of the derogation provided for in Article 4(c) of the ECSC Treaty. Accordingly, that provision of the Code is not intended to exclude the adoption of other measures derogating from the prohibition laid down in Article 4(c) of the ECSC Treaty.

Moreover, Article 1(1) of the Code must be interpreted as meaning that the Commission is not competent, under the Code, to approve, in accordance with the simplified procedures introduced by the latter, aid not covered by Articles 2 to 5 of the Code, and that, on the contrary, it is competent to adopt, pursuant to Article 95 of the ECSC Treaty, with the unanimous assent of the Council, supplementary measures, whether general or individual, approving aid not covered by the Fifth Aid Code.

Consequently, the Court of First Instance was right to hold, first, that the Fifth Aid Code represented a binding legal framework only for aid compatible with the ECSC Treaty and enumerated by it and, second, that the Commission is empowered to have recourse to Article 95 of the ECSC Treaty in order to adopt individual decisions.

( see paras 39, 42-43 )

2. It is true that, on the basis of the first paragraph of Article 95 of the ECSC Treaty, the Commission could not in any circumstance authorise the grant of State aid which was not necessary to attain the objectives of that Treaty and would be likely to give rise to distortion of competition in the common market in steel.

However, it cannot be inferred from that provision or from the principle of necessity embodied in it that State aid is not necessary for a project for the restructuring of an undertaking unless it is granted once only.

Such an interpretation of the first paragraph of Article 95 of the ECSC Treaty would not be in conformity with the purpose of that provision, which is to grant the Commission power to meet unforeseen situations by taking account of the changing nature of market conditions. Indeed, application of the once and once only principle would excessively restrict the category of aid capable of being regarded as necessary within the meaning of that provision and would not allow the Commission to examine, in each particular case, whether a project for restructuring aid was necessary in order to attain Treaty objectives.

( see paras 53-55 )
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1 Approximation of laws - Batteries and accumulators containing certain dangerous substances - Directive 91/157 - Member States required to adopt special programmes in pursuit of certain objectives - Scope of their obligation

(Council Directive 91/157, Art. 6)

2 Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Objective nature - Reason for the failure to fulfil obligations - Irrelevant

(EC Treaty, Art. 169 (now Art. 226 EC))

Summary

1 In order to achieve the objectives of Directive 91/157 on batteries and accumulators containing certain dangerous substances, Article 6 thereof requires the Member States to draw up programmes and then to review and update them regularly. That result is not sufficiently attained by a study or draft law which does no more than detail a number of programmes that may eventually be implemented, since Article 6 requires the effective establishment of such programmes.

2 An action based on Article 169 of the Treaty (now Article 226 EC) requires only an objective finding of failure by a Member State to fulfil its obligations, not proof of inertia or opposition on its part. Consequently, where a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligation to transpose a directive into national law within the period prescribed, the fact that it is continuing to make every effort to discharge that obligation is no defence.
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Common commercial policy - Measures to prevent the release for free circulation of counterfeit or pirated goods - National legislation precluding disclosure of the identity of the declarant or consignee of such goods - Not permissible

(Council Regulation No 3295/94, Art. 6(1))

Summary

$$On a proper construction, Regulation No 3295/94 laying down measures to prohibit the release for free circulation, export, re-export or entry for a suspensive procedure of counterfeit and pirated goods precludes a rule of national law under which the identity of declarants or consignees of imported goods which the trade-mark owner has found to be counterfeit may not be disclosed to him.

Effective application of the Regulation is directly dependent on the information supplied to the holder of the intellectual property right. Thus, if the identity of the declarant and/or consignee of the goods cannot be disclosed to him, it is in practice impossible for him to refer the case to the competent national authority so that, in a decision based on the merits, it can give final judgment against such practices. The reference in the second subparagraph of Article 6(1) of the Regulation to national provisions on the protection of personal data, commercial and industrial secrecy and professional and administrative confidentiality cannot therefore be understood as precluding disclosure to the holder of the right of the information which he needs in order to safeguard his interests.