Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 9 November 2004 in Case C-444/02 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Monomeles Protodikio Athinon): Fixtures Marketing Ltd v Organismos prognostikon agonon podosfairou AE (OPAP) (Directive 96/9/EC — Legal protection of databases — Definition of database — Scope of the sui generis right — Football fixture lists — Betting)
Date: 2005-01-08
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: data protection, database, interpretation of the law, sport, sporting event

C 6/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

8.1.2005

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

(Grand Chamber)

of 9 November 2004

in Case C-444/02 (reference for a preliminary ruling from
the Monomeles Protodikio Athinon): Fixtures Marketing
Ltd v Organismos prognostikon agonon podosfairou AE
(OPAP) (1)

(Directive 96/9/EC — Legal protection of databases — Defi-
nition of database — Scope of the sui generis right — Foot-
ball fixture lists — Betting)

(2005/C 6/16)

(Second Chamber)

of 11 November 2004

in Case C-457/02: criminal proceedings against Antonio
Niselli (1)

(Directives 75/442/EEC and 91/156/EEC — Definition of
‘waste’ — Reusable production or consumption residues —
Scrap metal)

(Language of the case: Greek)

(2005/C 6/17)

(Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published in
the European Court Reports)

(Language of the case: Italian)

In Case C-444/02: reference for a preliminary ruling under
Article 234 EC from the Monomeles Protodikio Athinon
(Greece), made by decision of 11 July 2002, received at the
Court on 9 December 2002, the proceedings between Fixtures
Marketing Ltd and Organismos prognostikon agonon podos-
fairou AE (OPAP) — the Court (Grand Chamber), composed of:
V. Skouris, President, P. Jann, C.W.A. Timmermans, A. Rosas
J.-
and K. Lenaerts
P. Puissochet, R. Schintgen, N. Colneric and J.N. Cunha Rodri-
gues, Judges; C. Stix-Hackl, Advocate General; M. Múgica Arza-
mendi and M.-F. Contet, Principal Administrators, for the Regis-
trar, has given a judgment on 9 November 2004, in which it
has ruled:

(Rapporteur), Presidents of Chambers,

The term database as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9/EC of
the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on
the legal protection of databases refers to any collection of works, data
or other materials, separable from one another without the value of
their contents being affected, including a method or system of some
sort for the retrieval of each of its constituent materials.

A fixture list for a football league such as that at issue in the case in
the main proceedings constitutes a database within the meaning of
Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9.

The expression ‘investment in … the obtaining … of the contents’ of
a database in Article 7(1) of Directive 96/9 must be understood to
refer to the resources used to seek out existing independent materials
and collect them in the database. It does not cover the resources used
for the creation of materials which make up the contents of a data-
base. In the context of drawing up a fixture list for the purpose of
organising football
it does not cover the
resources used to establish the dates, times and the team pairings for
the various matches in the league.

league fixtures, therefore,

(1) OJ C 31 of 8.2.2003.

In Case C-457/02: reference for a preliminary ruling under
Article 234 EC from the Tribunale di Terni (Italy), made by
order of 20 November 2002, received at the Court on 18
December 2002, in the criminal proceedings against Antonio
Niselli — the Court (Second Chamber), composed of: C.W.A.
Timmermans, President of the Chamber, C. Gulmann and J.-P.
Puissochet (Rapporteur), Judges; J. Kokott, Advocate General;
M. Múgica Arzamendi, Principal Administrator, for the Regis-
trar, has given a judgment on 11 November 2004, in which it
has ruled:

1. The definition of ‘waste’ in the first subparagraph of Article 1(a)
of Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste, as
amended by Council Directive 91/156/EEC of 18 March 1991
and by Commission Decision 96/350/EC of 24 May 1996,
cannot be construed as covering exclusively substances or objects
intended for, or subjected to, the disposal or recovery operations
mentioned in Annexes II A and II B to that directive or in the
equivalent lists, or to which their holder intends or is required to
subject them.

2. The meaning of ‘waste’ for the purposes of the first subparagraph
of Article 1(a) of Directive 75/442, as amended by Directive
is not to be interpreted as
91/156 and by Decision 96/350,
excluding all production or consumption residues which can be or
are reused in a cycle of production or consumption, either without
prior treatment and without harm to the environment, or after
undergoing prior treatment without, however, requiring a recovery
operation within the meaning of Annex II B to that directive.

(1) OJ C 31 of 8.2.2003.