Case T-53/02: Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 13 September 2005 — Ricosmos BV v Commission (Customs law — External Community transit operation concerning cigarettes — Fraud — Application for remission of import duties — Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 — Regulation (EEC) No 2454/93 — Equity clause — Compliance with time-limits — Rights of the defence — Principle of proportionality — Concept of obvious negligence)
Date: 2005-10-15
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: European Commission, Union transit, action for annulment (EU), customs duties, customs fraud, principle of proportionality, tobacco industry

C 257/8

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

15.10.2005

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 13 September
2005 — Ricosmos BV v Commission

Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 13 September
2005 — Sportwetten GmbH Gera v OHIM

(Case T-53/02) (1)

(Case T-140/02) (1)

(Customs law — External Community transit operation
concerning cigarettes — Fraud — Application for remission
of import duties — Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 — Regu-
lation (EEC) No 2454/93 — Equity clause — Compliance
with time-limits — Rights of the defence — Principle of
proportionality — Concept of obvious negligence)

(2005/C 257/13)

Language of the case: Dutch

(Community trade mark — Application for a declaration of
invalidity — Figurative Community trade mark including the
word element INTERTOPS — Mark contrary to public policy
or to accepted principles of morality — Article 7(1)(f) and
(2) and Article 51 of Regulation (EC) No 40/94)

(2005/C 257/14)

Language of the case: German

Parties:

Parties:

Applicant(s): Sportwetten GmbH Gera (Gera, Germany) [repre-
sented by: A. Zumschlinge, lawyer]

Applicant(s): Ricosmos BV (Delfzijl (Netherlands)) [represented
by initially M. Chatelin, M. Fleers and P. Metzler, then by J.
Hertoghs, lawyers,]

Defendant(s): Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market
(Trademarks and Design) [represented by: D. Schennen and G.
Schneider, acting as Agents]

Defendant(s): Commission of the European Communities [repre-
sented by initially M. van Beck and R. Tricot, then by M. van
Beck and B. Stromsky, Agents,]

Intertops Sportwetten GmbH (Salzburg, Austria)
Intervener(s):
[represented initially by H. Pfeifer, and subsequently by R.
Heimler, lawyers]

Application for:

Application for:

of Commission Decision REM 09/00

annulment
of
16 November 2001 declaring that the remission of import
duties in favour of the applicant which is the subject-matter of
the application submitted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands is
not justified

ACTION brought against the decision of the Fourth Board of
Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market
(Trade Marks and Designs) of 21 February 2002 (Case R 338/
2000-4), relating to an application for a declaration of inva-
lidity of the figurative Community trade mark INTERTOPS

Operative part of the judgment:

The Court:

1) Dismisses the application;

Operative part of the judgment:

1. There is no need to adjudicate on the applicant's application for a
declaration that the figurative Community trade mark including
the word element INTERTOPS is invalid, or on the intervener's
application for a document to be added to the file.

2) Orders the applicant

to bear its own costs and those of

the

Commission.

2. The remainder of the action is dismissed.

3. The applicant is ordered to pay all the costs.

(1) OJ C 118, 18.5.2002.

(1) OJ C 169, 13.7.2002