Case T-138/03: Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 13 December 2006 — É.R. and Others v Council and Commission (Common Agricultural Policy — Animal health — Bovine spongiform encephalopathy ( mad cow disease ) — New variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — Action for damages — Non-contractual liability — Liability of the Community in the absence of wrongful conduct on the part of its bodies — Loss — Causation — Procedural defects — Parallel proceedings before national courts — Limitation — Inadmissibility)
Date: 2006-12-30
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: European Commission, action for annulment (EU), bovine spongiform encephalopathy, damages, disease of the nervous system

30.12.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 331/31

Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 12 December
2006 — Asociación de Estaciones de Servicio de Madrid
and Federación Catalana de Estaciones de Servicio v
Commission

(Case T-95/03) (1)

(State aid — Legislation providing for urgent measures to
promote competition in the sector for the retail supply of
petroleum products — Decision not to raise any objections —
Admissibility — Legal persons — Measure of individual
concern to them — Manifest error of assessment — Duty to
investigation
state reasons — Duty to initiate the formal

procedure — Reasonable period of time)

(2006/C 331/68)

Language of the case: Spanish

Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 13 December
2006 — É.R. and Others v Council and Commission

(Case T-138/03) (1)

(Common Agricultural Policy — Animal health — Bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (‘mad cow disease’) — New
variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — Action for damages —
Non-contractual liability — Liability of the Community in the
absence of wrongful conduct on the part of its bodies — Loss
— Causation — Procedural defects — Parallel proceedings
before national courts — Limitation — Inadmissibility)

(2006/C 331/69)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Parties

Applicants: Asociación de Empresarios de Estaciones de Servicio
de la Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Madrid, Spain) and
Federación Catalana de Estaciones de Servicio (Barcelona, Spain)
(represented by: J. Jiménez Laiglesia, M. Delgado Echevarría and
R. Ortega Bueno, lawyers)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities (repre-
sented by: J. Buendía Sierra, Agent, and J. Rivas Andrés and J.
Gutiérrez Gisbert, lawyers)

Interveners in support of the defendant: Kingdom of Spain (repre-
sented by: initially by E. Braquehais Conesa, and subsequently
by M. Muñoz Pérez, Agents) and Asociación Nacional de
Grandes Empresas de Distribución (ANGED)
(repre-
sented by J. Pérez-Bustamante Köster and J. Passás Ogallar,
lawyers),

(Madrid)

Re:

Application for annulment of Commission Decision C(2002)
4355 final of 13 November 2002 concerning Spanish legisla-
tion on the opening of service stations by hypermarkets

J.D., D.D., V.D.

Applicants: É.R., O.O., J.R., A.R., B.P.R. (Vaulx-en-Velin, France);
(Ozoir-la-
T.D.,
Ferrière; France); C.R. (Vichy, France); H.R., M.S.R., I.R., B.R., M.
R.
(represented by: F.
Honnorat, lawyer)

(Palaiseau, France); D.E., É.E.

(Pau, France); and C.S.

(Paris, France)

Defendants: Council of the European Union (initially represented
by: M. Balta and F. Ruggeri Laderchi, and later by: M. Balta and
F. Florindo Gijón, Agents) and Commission of the European
Communities (initially represented by: D. Booss and G. Bersc-
heid, and later by: G. Berscheid and T. van Rijn, Agents)

Re:

Actions for damages pursuant to Article 235 EC and the second
paragraph of Article 288 EC seeking compensation for the
damage allegedly suffered by the applicants as a consequence of
the infection and subsequent death of members of their families
who suffered from a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
which was linked to the outbreak and spread in Europe of
bovine spongiform encephalopathy, for which the Council and
the Commission are responsible.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1. Dismisses the action;

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

2. Orders the applicants to bear three quarters of their own costs,
three quarters of those incurred by the Commission and all of the
costs incurred by the Asociación Nacional de Grandes Empresas de
Distribución;

3. Orders the Commission to bear a quarter of its own costs and a

quarter of those incurred by the applicants;

4. Orders the Kingdom of Spain to bear its own costs.

1. Dismisses the application as inadmissible in relation to É.R., O.O.,

J.R., A.R. and B.P.R.;

2. Dismisses the application as unfounded as to the remainder;

3. Orders the applicants to pay three-quarters of the costs and the

Council and the Commission to pay one-quarter of the costs.

(1) OJ C 112, 10.5.2003.

(1) OJ C 158, 5.7.2003. This case was previously cited as U. and Others

v Council and Commission.