Case C-262/02: Action brought on 16 July 2002 by the Commission of the European Communities against the French Republic
Date: 2002-08-24
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: European Commission, France, action for failure to fulfil an obligation, advertising, alcoholic beverage, broadcasting, sporting event

C 202/18

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

24.8.2002

Action brought on 16 July 2002 by the Commission of
the European Communities against the French Republic

(Case C-262/02)

(2002/C 202/26)

An action against the French Republic was brought before the
Court of Justice of the European Communities on 16 July
2002 by the Commission of the European Communities,
represented by H. van Lier, acting as Agent, with an address
for service in Luxembourg.

The Commission of the European Communities claims that
the Court should:

1. Declare that, by making the televised broadcasting in
France by French television channels of sporting events
taking place in the territory of other Member States
conditional upon the prior withdrawal of publicity pro-
moting alcoholic beverages, the French Republic has
failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 49 (ex 59) of
the EC Treaty;

2. Order the French Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The measures taken by the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel
(Higher Council for the Audiovisual Sector, hereinafter ‘the
CSA’) in accordance with the Law of 10 January 1991 limiting
publicity promoting alcoholic beverages (‘Loi Evin’), which
according to the CSA’s interpretation, as formalised in a Code
of Good Conduct, is to apply to the televised broadcasting in
French territory, by French television channels, of sporting
events taking place in the territory of other Member States,
when publicity promoting alcoholic beverages appears on the
sports grounds concerned, constitute an infringement of
Article 49 EC.

The measures taken by the CSA give rise to several ‘restrictive
effects’ on the freedom to provide services. First, the French
broadcasting services are not authorised to accept advertise-
ments for alcoholic beverages or to broadcast programmes,
such as sporting events, which are likely to entail publicity for
such products, whatever their origin. Those effects extend to
retransmissions and in that way also affect operators located
in another Member State. This applies, inter alia, to foreign
organisers of sporting events taking place outside France, who
are prevented from selling retransmission rights to French
broadcasting services (or their agents) when those broadcasts
are likely to entail publicity for alcoholic products. Second, it
affects the holders of licences for the advertising hoardings
installed around stadiums, since they are unable to sell
advertising space to French or even non-French advertisers
without running the risk that the advertising might have to be
withdrawn from the stadium to enable the match to be
broadcast by a French station. Lastly, the situation complained
of could also lead to restrictions on the sponsorship activities
provided to sports clubs by the producers of alcoholic
beverages.

in any event,

The measures in question are inadequate in that they apply in
the absence of proof of evasion of the law by advertisers of
alcoholic beverages and in that,
they are
disproportionate owing to their arbitrary nature. The Com-
mission considers that the system introduced by the French
authorities to combat or prevent cases of evasion of the Loi
Evin lacks precision and does not enable operators to know
with sufficient certainty the extent of
is
accordingly disproportionate. In particular, the dividing line
between different types of events (multinational events, to
which the Loi Evin would never be applied, and binational
events, to which the Loi Evin would be applied, unless there
was proof that the law was not being evaded) is not clearly
established in the Code of Good Conduct.

their rights.

It