Case T-55/08: Action brought on 5 February 2008 — UEFA v Commission
Date: 2008-02-05
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: European Commission, action for annulment (EU), competition law, free movement of programmes, professional sport, sporting event, sports body

C 107/28

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

26.4.2008

Appeal brought on 18 January 2008 by C. Michail against
the judgment of the Civil Service Tribunal delivered on
22 November 2007 in Case F-67/05 Michail v Commission

judgment displays inadequate reasoning and therefore infringes
fundamental procedural rights enjoyed by the appellant and
breaches Community law.

(Case T-49/08 P)

(2008/C 107/47)

Language of the case: Greek

Action brought on 5 February 2008 — UEFA v
Commission

Parties

Appellant: Christos Michail (represented by C. Meïdanis, lawyer)

Other party to the proceedings: Commission of
Communities

the European

(Case T-55/08)

(2008/C 107/48)

Language of the case: English

Form of order sought by the appellant

Parties

— set aside the judgment of the Civil Service Tribunal in Case
F-67/05 in so far as it does not rule upon financial compen-
sation for the non-material harm which he suffered as a
result of acts and omissions of the administrative authority;

Applicant: Union des associations européennes de football
(UEFA)
(represented by: A. Bell and K.
Learoyd, Solicitors)

(Nyon, Switzerland)

— determine the financial compensation for the non-material
harm to the appellant, which amounts to EUR 120 000;

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

— make an order as to costs as laid down by law.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The appellant submits that, in the contested judgment, the Civil
Service Tribunal erred in ruling upon his application for annul-
ment of his career development report for 2003 and of the
decision of the appointing authority rejecting the complaints
submitted by him under Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations.

More specifically, the appellant contends that the Civil Service
Tribunal wrongly refused to grant financial compensation for
the non-material harm which he suffered as a result of his being
assigned to the Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG AGRI)
after the Directorate-General for Financial Control, within which
he fell, was abolished. In the appellant's submission, the Civil
Service Tribunal applied Community law incorrectly as a result
of misappraisal of the evidence and contradictory reasoning.

The appellant also submits that the Civil Service Tribunal erred
in refusing to rule upon a particular claim or otherwise that its

Form of order sought

— Annulment of the contested decision insofar as it approves,
as a matter of Community law, the listing in the United
Kingdom of the entire EURO; and

— an order that the Commission pay its own costs and UEFA's

costs in relation to these proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments

Under Article 3a of Council Directive 89/552/EEC (1) a Member
State may draw up a list of sporting or other events that are
considered to be events of ‘major importance to society’. The
events on the list cannot be the subject of exclusive broadcasting
rights which prevent a substantial proportion of the public in
that Member State from watching the event via live coverage or
deferred coverage on free television.

26.4.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 107/29

The applicant seeks the annulment of Commission Decision
2007/730/EC of 16 October 2007 (2) by which the Commis-
sion declared that the list drawn up by the United Kingdom
to Article 3a(1) of Council Directive 89/552/EEC,
pursuant
listing the entire UEFA European Football Championship final
tournament — the EURO, was compatible with Community
law.

In support of its application, the applicant submits that the
Commission's decision:

Action brought on 5 February 2008 — IEA and Others v
Commission

(Case T-56/08)

(2008/C 107/49)

Language of the case: English

— is not adopted following a clear and transparent procedure
as required under Article 3a(1) of Directive 89/552/EEC;

Parties

— does not set out an adequate statement of reasons;

— is based on a manifest error of appreciation, as the Commis-
sion concluded that matches not involving any home nation
team in the EURO could be considered as events of major
importance for the UK society;

— contains no proper analysis of competition law or of the
free movement of services and leads to a disproportionate
and unjustified distortion of competition on the relevant
market and restriction of the free provision of broadcasting
services;

— infringes the applicant's property rights, as it results in a
restriction of the way in which the applicant may market
the television rights to the EURO;

— infringes the principle of proportionality, as it is neither
suitable nor necessary for the objectives it purports to
achieve; and

— infringes the principle of equal treatment, as it gives the
applicant a disadvantage compared to other right holders.

(1) Council Directive 89/552/EEC of 3 October 1989 on the coordina-
tion of certain provisions laid down by Law, Regulation or Adminis-
trative Action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television
broadcasting activities (OJ 1989 L 298, p. 23).

(2) Commission Decision 2007/730/EC of 16 October 2007 on the
compatibility with Community law of measures taken by the United
Kingdom pursuant to Article 3a(1) of Council Directive 89/552/EEC
on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regu-
lation or administrative action in Member States concerning the
pursuit of television broadcasting activities (OJ 2007 L 295, p. 12).

Stichting

IEA Secretariaat Nederland

Applicant:
(IEA)
(Amsterdam, Netherlands), Educational Testing Service Global
BV (ETS-Europe) (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Deutsches Institut
für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung (DIPF) (Frankfurt am
Main, Germany), Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungs-
wesen (IQB) (Berlin, Germany) (represented by: E. Morgan de
Rivery and S. Thibault-Liger, lawyers)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

— Annul

in its entirety the decision of the Commission of
23 November 2007 rejecting the tender from the applicant
in response to the call
tender No EAC/21/2007
for
‘European survey on language competences’, in so far as it
infringes EU law and is based on manifest errors of assess-
ment;

— annul

in its entirety the decision of

the Commission
awarding the contract related to this call for tender to the
SurveyLang Consortium, in so far as it infringes EU law and
is based on manifest errors of assessment; and

— order, pursuant to Article 87(2) of the Rules of Procedure of
the CFI, the Commission to pay the costs of the applicant.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicants submitted a bid in response to the defendant's
call for tender concerning the ‘European survey on language
competences’ (OJ 2007/S 61-074161), as rectified (OJ 2007/S
109-133727). The applicants contest the defendant's decision of
23 November 2007 to reject their bid and to award the contract
to another tenderer.

In support of their application, the applicants submit that the
contested decision violates the principle of equal
treatment,
the financial regulation (1) and the tender
Article 100(1) of
specifications.