WRITTEN QUESTION E-2244/98

by Allan Macartney (ARE) to the Commission

(16 July 1998)

Subject: Car imports and registration between Member States

Is the Commission aware of problems experienced by independent commercial car dealers in obtaining the type approval certificates from car manufacturers needed to enable dealers to register in their own Member State vehicles they have imported from another Member State?

What steps is the Commission taking to ensure that car manufacturers in Member States are meeting their obligation to provide type approval certificates to commercial car dealers?

What fee, if any, does the Commission consider manufacturers should be entitled to levy against dealers for the release of type approval certificates?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(21 September 1998)

Article 7 paragraph 1 of Council Directive 92/53/EEC of 18 June 1992 amending Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers(1) establishes that "1. Each Member State shall register, permit the sale or entry into service of new vehicles on grounds relating to their construction and functioning if, and only if, they are accompanied by a valid certificate of conformity".

Member States must enforce the obligation of manufacturers to issue the EC certificate of conformity to all relevant unregistered vehicles. Any vehicle with an EC type-approval certificate (as from 1 January 1998 most new passenger cars of the M1 category), can be directly registered in another Member State without any other administrative formality concerning its approval. Only vehicles without an EC type-approval certificate may need to undergo a single approval procedure in order to be re-registered in another Member State. Some Member States delegate to the manufacturers or their representatives the task of issuing documents necessary for the national single approval of a vehicle which has been nationally type-approved or single approved in another Member State.

When the delegation by a Member State takes the form of a legal monopoly, the Court of justice, in its judgment of 13 November 1975, in Case 26-75, General Motors Continental NV v Commission of the European Communities(2), established that:

"When combined with the freedom of the manufacturer or its authorized agent appointed by the public authority to fix the price for its service, the delegation by a Member State to such person in the form of a legal monopoly of the duty governed by public law which consists in carrying out the technical inspection of vehicles before they are used on the public highway, leads to the creation of a dominant position.

The abuse of such a position may be, inter alia, in the imposition of a price which is excessive in relation to the economic value of the service provided, and which has the effect of curbing parallel imports by neutralizing the possibly more favourable price levels applying in other sales areas in the Community or by leading to unfair trading in the sense of Article 86(2) (a)."

Otherwise, in its judgment in Gofette and Gilliard, the Court of justice ruled concerning vehicles without an EC type-approval certificate that:

"Articles 30 and 36 of the EEC Treaty are to be interpreted as meaning that an approval procedure laid down in a Member State for vehicles imported from another Member State and already approved for use in that State only complies with the Treaty if:

- the testing procedure does not entail unreasonable costs or delays and the public authorities ensure that those conditions are fully met where the manufacturer or his authorized agent has the task of carrying out the necessary checks,

- the importer may, as an alternative to the checking procedure, produce documents issued in the exporting Member State where those documents provide the necessary information based on tests already carried out."

The Commission in its "Interpretative communication on procedures for the type-approval and registration of vehicles previously registered in another Member State"(3), gave its view of this judgment stating that:

"If the Member States delegate certain public-law functions, such as the issue of documents needed for the type-approval and registration of a vehicle, originating in another Member State, to manufacturers or their authorized agents, they are required to ensure that those persons carry out those functions in a manner compatible with the requirements of the free movement of goods within the Union. In particular, manufacturers or their authorized agents are required to issue the documents requested of them

- without requiring the presentation of the vehicle, since their action concerns the technical characteristics of the vehicle at the time it is first put on the road and not its physical condition at the time of transfer,

- without requiring the presentation of commercial documents relating to the vehicle (sales invoice, tax receipt, etc.,) except where these are absolutely necessary in order to establish the exact make of the vehicle (where the documents from the Member State of origin are insufficient for this purpose),

- at reasonable cost and within a reasonable period of time (as a guide, the cost should not exceed ECU 100 and the time should not be more than three weeks)."

If the Commission receives a detailed complaint from any citizen or economic operator concerning non-compliance with Community law by another economic operator, it will investigate the complaint and will give an appropriate reply.

(1) OJ L 225, 10.8.1992.

(2) ECR 1975, P.1.367-1.381.

(3) OJ C 143, 15.5.1986.