Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Approximation of laws - Procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations - Technical regulations within the meaning of Directive 83/189 - Definition - National rule capable of being interpreted as imposing a requirement to mark or label products - Included

(Art. 234 EC; Council Directive 83/189, Art. 1(1) and (5))

2. Approximation of laws - Procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations - Member States' obligation to notify all draft technical regulations to the Commission - Exemption - Where the Member State is thereby honouring obligations under Community directives or regulations - Not applicable to a national provision which must be understood as requiring a mark or label to be applied

(Council Directive 83/189, Arts 8 and 10)

3. Approximation of laws - Procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations - Member States' obligation to notify all draft technical regulations to the Commission - Possibility for individuals to rely on the failure to notify - Obligation on the national court not to apply the provision in question - Sanction - Detailed rules - Application of national law - Conditions

(Council Directive 83/189, Art. 8)

4. Approximation of laws - Waste - Directive 75/442 - Obligation to communicate all draft rules to the Commission - Infringement - Whether possible for individuals to rely on failure to communicate draft rules - Not possible

(Council Directive 75/442, Art. 3(2))

5. Free movement of goods - Quantitative restrictions - Measures having equivalent effect - Definition - National provision laying down a general obligation to identify the packaging collected for disposal by an approved undertaking - Inapplicability of Article 30 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 28 EC) - Whether permissible - Conditions - Assessment by the national court

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

Summary

$$1. A national provision which, in the light of its wording and context, does not in itself seem to require, for the purpose of identifying the packaging governed by it, the placing of a sign on the product or its packaging could constitute a technical regulation within the meaning of Directive 83/189 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations, as amended by Directive 88/182, only if the national court were to hold that it had to be interpreted as requiring a mark or label to be applied.

( see para. 39, operative part 1 )

2. Where a provision of national law must be understood as requiring a mark or label to be applied, Article 10 of Directive 83/189 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations, as amended by Directive 88/182, is to be interpreted as meaning that that provision is not exempted from the notification requirement laid down in Article 8 of Directive 83/189.

( see para. 46, operative part 2 )

3. An individual may invoke the failure to make notification, pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 83/189 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations, of a national provision which must be interpreted as requiring a mark or label to be applied. It is then for the national court to refuse to apply that provision, the question of the conclusions to be drawn from the inapplicability of that national provision as regards the severity of the sanction under the applicable national law, such as nullity or unenforceability of the contract, being a question governed by national law. That conclusion is, however, subject to the condition that the applicable rules of national law are not less favourable than those governing similar domestic actions and are not framed in such a way as to render impossible in practice the exercise of rights conferred by Community law.

( see para. 53, operative part 3 )

4. Article 3(2) of Directive 75/442 on waste, properly construed, does not confer on individuals any right which they may enforce before national courts in order to obtain the annulment or suspension of national rules falling within the scope of that provision on the ground that the rules were adopted without having been previously communicated to the Commission.

( see para. 63, operative part 5 )

5. A national provision which must be interpreted as not requiring a mark or label to be applied but as imposing only a general obligation to identify the packaging collected for disposal by an approved undertaking may be regarded as a selling arrangement. It is for the national court to verify whether the relevant conditions set out in the case-law of the Court for exempting such an obligation from the scope of application of Article 30 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 28 EC) are met, namely that the provision at issue applies to all relevant traders operating within the national territory and that it affects in the same manner, in law and in fact, the marketing of domestic products and products from other Member States.

( see para 75, operative part 6 )