Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Free movement of goods — Quantitative restrictions of exports — Measures having equivalent effect — Convention between two Member States applying the condition that cheese covered by a designation of origin is grated and packaged in the region of production — Justification — Protection of industrial and commercial property — Measure that is necessary and proportionate and capable of upholding the reputation of the designation of origin — (Arts 29 EC and 30 EC)

2. Agriculture — Uniform laws — Protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs — Use of a protected designation of origin subject to the condition that operations such as grating and packaging the product take place in the region of production — Whether permissible — (Council Regulation No 2081/92)

3. Free movement of goods — Quantitative restrictions of exports — Measures having equivalent effect — Use of the protected designation of origin Grana Padano subject, under a Community measure, to the condition that the product is grated and packaged in the region of production — Justification — Protection of industrial and commercial property — Measure that is necessary and proportionate and capable of upholding the reputation of the designation of origin — Whether condition may be relied on against economic operators — Not in the absence of adequate publicity — Exception — (Arts 29 EC and 30 EC; Commission Regulation No 1107/96)

Summary

1. As regards the period prior to the entry into force of Regulation No 1107/96 on the registration of geographical indications and designations of origin under the procedure laid down in Article 17 of Regulation No 2081/92, Article 29 EC must be interpreted as not precluding a convention concluded between two Member States A and B, such as the Convention between the French Republic and the Italian Republic on the protection of designations of origin, indications of provenance and names of certain products, signed in Rome on 28 April 1964, from making applicable in Member State A national legislation of Member State B under which the designation of origin of a cheese, protected in Member State B, is reserved, for cheese marketed in grated form, to cheese grated and packaged in the region of production.

While such a convention has the specific effect of restricting patterns of exports of cheese eligible for the designation of origin and thereby of establishing a difference in treatment between the domestic trade of a Member State and its export trade, and therefore constitutes a measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction on exports within the meaning of Article 29 EC, it may apply in relations between the two contracting Member States, as a measure that is justified on grounds of the protection of industrial and commercial property, in so far as it renders applicable a condition that the product be grated and packaged in the region of production, in order to preserve the reputation of the product by strengthening control over its particular characteristics and its quality, thus constituting a measure protecting the designation of origin which may be used by all the operators concerned and is of decisive importance to them, and in so far as the resulting restriction may be regarded as necessary for attaining the objective pursued, in the sense that there are no alternative less restrictive measures capable of attaining it.

see paras 43-44, 51, 63-64, 67, operative part 1

2. Regulation No 2081/92 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs must be interpreted as not precluding the use of a protected designation of origin from being subject to the condition that operations such as the grating and packaging of the product take place in the region of production, where such a condition is laid down in the specification.

The wording of Article 4 of that regulation, which makes eligibility to use a protected designation of origin subject to the product's compliance with a specification and gives a non-exhaustive list of the items to be included in the specification, does not exclude the application of special technical rules to operations leading to different presentations on the market of the same product, so that in each case it can satisfy the criterion of quality to which consumers have in recent years tended to attach greater importance, and guarantee an identifiable geographical origin.

see paras 76-77, 81, 83, operative part 2

3. The fact that Regulation No 1107/96, registering inter alia the protected designation of origin "Grana Padano" , makes the use of that designation for cheese marketed in grated form subject to the condition that grating and packaging operations be carried out in the region of production has the specific effect of restricting patterns of exports of cheese eligible for the designation of origin and thereby of establishing a difference in treatment between the domestic trade of a Member State and its export trade, and thus constitutes a measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction on exports within the meaning of Article 29 EC.

Such a condition may, however, be regarded as justified on grounds of the protection of industrial and commercial property, and hence compatible with Article 29 EC, since its aim is to preserve the reputation of the product by strengthening control over its particular characteristics and its quality, thus constituting a measure protecting the designation of origin which may be used by all the operators concerned and is of decisive importance to them, and since the resulting restriction may be regarded as necessary for attaining the objective pursued, in the sense that there are no alternative less restrictive measures capable of attaining it.

However, the condition in question may not be relied on against economic operators, as it was not brought to their knowledge by adequate publicity in Community legislation. Nevertheless, the principle of legal certainty does not preclude that condition from being regarded by the national court as capable of being relied on against operators who carried on the activity of grating and packaging the product in the period prior to the entry into force of Regulation No 1107/96, should that court consider that during that period the relevant legislation of the Member State of export was applicable by virtue of a convention between that State and the Member State of import and capable of being relied on against those concerned by virtue of the national rules on publicity.

see paras 43, 63-64, 88, 90, 103, operative parts 3-4