Case C-199/06: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 12 February 2008 (Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil d'État (France)) — Centre d'exportation du livre français (CELF), Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication v Société internationale de diffusion et d'édition (State aid — Article 88(3) EC — National courts — Recovery of unlawfully implemented aid — Aid declared compatible with the common market)
Date: 2008-02-12
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: State aid, control of State aid, exchange of information, interpretation of the law

29.3.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 79/3

Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 12 February
2008 (reference
a preliminary ruling from the
Finanzgericht Hamburg — Germany) — Willy Kempter KG
v Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Jonas

for

time-limits for seeking remedies, in a manner consistent with the
Community principles of effectiveness and equivalence.

(Case C-2/06) (1)

(1) OJ C 60, 11.3.2006.

(Export of cattle — Export refunds — Final administrative
decision — Interpretation of a judgment of the Court —
Effect of a preliminary ruling given by the Court after that
decision — Review and withdrawal — Time-limits — Legal
certainty — Principle of cooperation — Article 10 EC)

(2008/C 79/03)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Finanzgericht Hamburg

Parties to the main proceedings

Claimant: Willy Kempter KG

Defendant: Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Jonas

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Finanzgericht Hamburg —
Interpretation of Article 10 of the EC Treaty as interpreted by
the judgment of the Court in Case C-453/00 Kühne & Heitz
[2004] ECR I-837 — Review and amendment by an administra-
tive body of an administrative decision by it that has become
final in order to take account of the interpretation of the rele-
vant Community provision given in the meantime in a judg-
ment of the Court although the person to whom the decision
was addressed had not relied on infringement of that provision
at the time of the initial
judicial proceedings and lodged its
application for review only 19 months after that judgment was
delivered

Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 12 February
2008 (Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil
d'État (France)) — Centre d'exportation du livre français
(CELF), Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication v
Société internationale de diffusion et d'édition

(Case C-199/06) (1)

(State aid — Article 88(3) EC — National courts — Recovery
of unlawfully implemented aid — Aid declared compatible
with the common market)

(2008/C 79/04)

Language of the case: French

Referring court

Conseil d'État

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: Centre d'exportation du livre français (CELF), Ministre
de la Culture et de la Communication

Defendant: Société internationale de diffusion et d'édition

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Conseil d'Etat (France) —
Interpretation of Article 88 EC — Whether it is permissible for
a Member State not to recover unlawfully granted aid which the
European Commission, after receiving a complaint from a third
party, has declared compatible with the common market

Operative part of the judgment

Operative part of the judgment

1. In the context of a procedure before an administrative body for
review of an administrative decision that became final by virtue of a
judgment, delivered by a court of final instance, which, in the light
of a decision given by the Court subsequent to it, was based on a
misinterpretation of Community law, Community law does not
require the claimant to have relied on Community law in the legal
action under domestic law which he brought against that decision.

2. Community law does not impose any limit in time for making an
application for review of an administrative decision that has become
final. The Member States nevertheless remain free to set reasonable

common market, within the meaning

1. The last sentence of Article 88(3) EC is to be interpreted as
meaning that the national court is not bound to order the recovery
of aid implemented contrary to that provision, where the Commis-
sion has adopted a final decision declaring that aid to be compa-
tible with the
of
Article 87 EC. Applying Community law, the national court must
order the aid recipient to pay interest in respect of the period of
unlawfulness. Within the framework of its domestic law, it may, if
appropriate, also order the recovery of the unlawful aid, without
prejudice to the Member State's right to re-implement it, subse-
quently. It may also be required to uphold claims for compensation
for damage caused by reason of the unlawful nature of the aid.

C 79/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

29.3.2008

2. In a procedural situation such as that in the main proceedings, the
obligation, arising from the last sentence of Article 88(3) EC, to
remedy the consequences of the aid's unlawfulness extends also, for
the purposes of calculating the sums to be paid by the recipient,
and save for exceptional circumstances, to the period between a deci-
sion of the Commission of the European Communities declaring the
aid to be compatible with the common market and the annulment
of that decision by the Community court.

(1) OJ C 154, 1.7.2006.

Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 14 February
2008 (reference
a preliminary ruling from the
Landgericht Koblenz — Germany) — Dynamic Medien
Vertriebs GmbH v Avides Media AG

for

storage media not labelled as having been declared available to
young persons by the competent authority of the Member State
— Image storage media imported from another Member State
having been declared available to young persons above a certain
age limit by the competent authority of that Member State —
Principle of proportionality

Operative part of the judgment

Article 28 EC does not preclude national rules, such as those at issue
in the main proceedings, which prohibit the sale and transfer by mail
order of image storage media which have not been examined and clas-
sified by a higher regional authority or a national voluntary self-regu-
lation body for the purposes of protecting young persons and which do
not bear a label from that authority or that body indicating the age
from which they may be viewed, unless it appears that the procedure
for examination, classification and labelling of image storage media
established by those rules
readily accessible or cannot be
completed within a reasonable period, or that a decision of refusal is
not open to challenge before the courts.

is not

(Case C-244/06) (1)

(1) OJ C 178, 29.7.2006.

(Free movement of goods — Article 28 EC — Measures
having equivalent effect — Directive 2000/31/EC — National
rules prohibiting the sale by mail order of image storage
media which have not been examined and classified by the
competent authority for the purpose of protecting children and
which do not bear a label from that authority indicating the
age from which they may be viewed — Image storage media
imported from another Member State which have been exam-
ined and classified by the competent authority of that State
and bear an age-limit label — Justification — Child protection
— Principle of proportionality)

(2008/C 79/05)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Landgericht Koblenz

Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 14 February
the European Communities v
2008 — Commission of

Kingdom of Spain

(Case C-274/06) (1)

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil
its obligations —
Article 56 EC — National provision limiting the voting rights
of shareholders in undertakings in the energy sector —
Limitation applicable to public bodies)

(2008/C 79/06)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties to the main proceedings

Parties

Applicant: Dynamic Medien Vertriebs GmbH

Defendant: Avides Media AG

Re:

Applicant: Commission of the European Communities (repre-
sented by: H. Stovlbæk and R. Vidal Puig, Agents, acting as
Agents)

Defendant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: N. Díaz Abad,
acting as the Agent)

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Landgericht Koblenz —
Interpretation of Articles 28 EC and 30 EC and the provisions
of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information
society services,
in the
internal market (OJ 2000 L 178, p. 1) — National legislation
on the protection of youth prohibiting mail order sales of image

in particular electronic commerce,

Re:

Failure of a Member State to fulfil its obligations — Infringe-
ment of Article 56 EC — National provision which provides, in
certain cases, for the limitation of voting rights in undertakings
in the energy sector