Case C-26/05: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Landesgericht Korneuburg (Austria) by order of that court of 13 January 2005 in Plato Plastik Robert Frank GmbH v CAROPACK Handels GmbH
Date: 2005-04-02
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: interpretation of the law, packaging, packaging product, waste management, waste recycling

C 82/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

2.4.2005

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

1. declare that, by failing to adopt the laws, regulations and
administrative provisions necessary to comply with Direc-
tive 2000/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 22 June 2000 amending Council Directive
93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of
working time to cover sectors and activities excluded from
that directive (1) or, in any event, by failing to communicate
those provisions to the Commission, the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article
2(1) of that directive;

2. order the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The period for transposition of the Directive into national law
expired on 1 August 2003.

(1) OJ L 195, 01.08.2000, p. 41.

Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Landesgericht
Korneuburg (Austria) by order of that court of 13 January
2005 in Plato Plastik Robert Frank GmbH v CAROPACK
Handels GmbH

(Case C-26/05)

(2005/C 82/21)

(Language of the case: German)

Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the Euro-
pean Communities by order of the Landesgericht Korneuburg
(Austria) of 13 January 2005,
(Regional Court, Korneuburg)
received at the Court Registry on 27 January 2005, for a preli-
minary ruling in the proceedings between Plato Plastik Robert
Frank GmbH and CAROPACK Handels GmbH on the following
questions:

ging, and does this also apply to carrier bags? Is the
producer
(supplier) of products described in the first
sentence of Article 3(1), namely products used for the
containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation
of goods, and non-returnable items used for the same
purposes, therefore a producer (supplier) of packaging mate-
rials (packaging products) and not a producer of sales packa-
ging, grouped packaging or transport packaging (packaging
producer; compare the corresponding terms in Article 3(11)
of the directive)?’

2. First additional question, should the principal question be
answered in the affirmative: ‘Is the producer of a carrier bag
accordingly not a producer of sales packaging, grouped
packaging or transport packaging but a producer of packa-
ging materials (packaging products)?’

3. Second additional question, should the first additional ques-
tion be answered in the affirmative: ‘Is it contrary to Com-
munity law, in particular to the principle of equality, to the
prohibition on objectively unjustified restrictions on the
freedom to carry on a business and to the prohibition on
creating distortions of competition, for the legislation of a
Member State to provide, on pain of a penalty, that the
producer of packaging materials, particularly of carrier bags,
must either accept their return or participate in a collection
and recovery system in this regard, unless a party further
down the distribution chain takes over that obligation and
provides the producer of the packaging materials with a
legally valid declaration on the matter?’

Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Finanzgericht
Hamburg by order of that court of 5 January 2005 in
Elfering Export GmbH v Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Jonas

(Case C-27/05)

(2005/C 82/22)

(Language of the case: German)

1. Principal question: ‘For the purposes of European Parliament
and Council Directive 94/62/EC of 20 December 1994, is
the producer of sales packaging, grouped packaging or
transport packaging, namely the packaging producer, always
the party which, in the course of the exercise of its profes-
sional activity, brings goods, or has goods brought, directly
or indirectly together with the product intended as packa-

Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the Euro-
pean Communities by order of the Finanzgericht Hamburg
(Finance Court, Hamburg)
(Germany) of 5 January 2005,
received at the Court Registry on 27 January 2005, for a preli-
minary ruling in the proceedings between Elfering Export
GmbH and Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Jonas on the following
question: