Joined Cases C-260/06 and C-261/06: Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 8 November 2007 (references for a preliminary ruling from the Cour d'appel de Montpellier, France) — Criminal proceedings against Daniel Escalier (C-260/06), Jean Bonnarel (C-261/06) (Plant protection products — Parallel imports — Marketing authorisation procedure — Whether permissible — Conditions — Observance of the principle of proportionality)
Date: 2007-12-22
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: agricultural holding, import, interpretation of the law, market approval, pharmaceutical product, plant health product

C 315/18

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

22.12.2007

Operative part of the judgment

Article 4(1)(g) and (3)(b) of Council Directive 69/335/EEC of 17 July
1969 concerning indirect taxes on the raising of capital, as amended
by Council Directive 85/303/EEC of 10 June 1985 and by the Act
concerning the conditions of accession of the Republic of Austria, the
Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden and the adjustments
to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded, must be inter-
preted to the effect that the waiver by a Member State of the charging
of capital duty does not preclude a company falling within one of the
categories referred to in Article 3(1)(a) of that directive from being
classified as a capital company for the purposes of charging capital
duty within the meaning of Article 4(1)(g) of that directive if its effec-
tive centre of management is transferred from that Member State to
another Member State in which that duty is still levied. Nevertheless,
the result of such an interpretation cannot be to encourage conduct
characterised by the putting in place of artificial arrangements with the
sole aim of obtaining a fiscal advantage. It is for the national court to
verify whether there is objective evidence of action constituting an
abusive practice of that kind in the circumstances of the main proceed-
ings.

(1) OJ C 212, 2.9.2006.

Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 8 November
2007 (references for a preliminary ruling from the Cour
d'appel de Montpellier, France) — Criminal proceedings
Bonnarel
against Daniel

(C-260/06),

Escalier

Jean

plant protection product
from another Member State by a
farmer solely for the needs of his own farm when that product
already has marketing authorisation in another Member State
granted in accordance with Directive 91/414/EEC subject to a
simplified authorisation procedure designed to verify that the
product meets identity conditions and subject to the payment of
a charge of EUR 800

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Declares that a Member State may subject to a simplified marketing
authorisation procedure the parallel
import of a plant protection
product from another Member State in which it already has the benefit
of such an authorisation, where the importation is made by a farmer
solely for the needs of his farm, and the marketing authorisation thus
granted is personal to each operator. It cannot be made a condition of
that authorisation that the imported product be named with the brand
name belonging to the operator concerned where he is a farmer who is
making the parallel importation solely for the needs of his own farm.
That authorisation cannot be subject to payment of a charge which
bears no relation to the costs incurred by the control or the administra-
tive steps needed for examination of the authorisation application. An
appraisal of such costs as a fixed sum is however permissible provided
that the principle of proportionality is observed.

(1) OJ C 212, 2.9.2006.

(C-261/06)

(Joined Cases C-260/06 and C-261/06) (1)

(Plant protection products — Parallel imports — Marketing
authorisation procedure — Whether permissible — Conditions
— Observance of the principle of proportionality)

(2007/C 315/29)

Language of the case: French

Referring court

Cour d'appel de Montpellier, France

Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 25 October
the European Union,
2007 — J.C. Blom v Council of

Commission of the European Communities

(Case C-344/06 P) (1)

(Appeal — Action for damages — Non-contractual liability
— Milk — Additional levy — Reference quantity — Produ-
cers who entered into a non-marketing undertaking —
SLOM 1983 producers — Failure to resume production on
expiry of the undertaking)

(2007/C 315/30)

Language of the case: Dutch

Parties in the main criminal proceedings

Daniel Escalier (C-260/06), Jean Bonnarel (C-261/06)

Parties

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Cour d'appel de Montpel-
lier — Interpretation of Articles 28 and 30 of the EC Treaty and
of Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 concerning
the placing of plant protection products on the market (OJ 1991
L 230, p. 1) — National legislation making the importation of a

Appellant: J.C. Blom (represented by: E. Pijnacker Hordijk and S.
C.H Molin, advocaten)

Other parties to the proceedings: Council of the European Union
(represented by: A.-M. Colaert, Agent), Commission of
the
European Communities (represented by: T. van Rijn and M. van
Heezik, Agents)