Case C-173/07: Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 10 July 2008 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main — Germany) — Emirates Airlines Direktion für Deutschland v Diether Schenkel (Carriage by air — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 — Compensation for passengers in the event of cancellation of a flight — Scope — Article 3(1)(a) — Concept of flight )
Date: 2008-07-10
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: air transport, carriage of passengers, consumer protection, indemnification, interpretation of the law, transport regulations

C 223/14

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.8.2008

Operative part of the judgment

Re:

1. Article 12(7) of Directive 97/33/EC of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 30 June 1997 on interconnection in telecom-
munications with regard to ensuring universal service and interoper-
ability through application of the principles of open network provi-
sion (ONP), as amended by Directive 98/61/EC of the European
the Council of 24 September 1998, and
Parliament and of
Article 4c of Commission Directive 90/388/EEC of 28 June
1990 on competition in the markets
telecommunications
services, as amended by Commission Directive 96/19/EC of
13 March 1996, the latter article read in conjunction with recitals
5 and 20 in the preamble to Directive 96/19, must be interpreted
as precluding a national regulatory authority from requiring an
operator of a network interconnected with a public network to pay
to the market-dominant subscriber network operator a connection
charge which is additional to an interconnection charge and is
intended to compensate the latter operator for the deficit incurred as
a result of providing the local loop for the year 2003.

for

2. Article 4c of Directive 90/388, as amended by Directive 96/19,
and Article 12(7) of Directive 97/33, as amended by Direc-
tive 98/61, produce direct effect and can be relied on directly before
a national court by individuals to challenge a decision of
the
national regulatory authority.

(1) OJ C 140, 23.6.2008.

for

a preliminary ruling — Oberlandesgericht
Reference
Frankfurt am Main –Interpretation of Article 3(1)(a) of Regu-
lation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on
compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of
denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, and
repealing Regulation (EEC) No 295/91 (OJ 2004 L 46, p. 1) —
Concept of ‘departure’ — Outward and return ticket from a
Member State to a non-member country — Cancellation of the
return flight

Operative part of the judgment

Article 3(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European
Parliament and of
the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing
common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the
event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights,
and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 295/91, must be interpreted as
not applying to the case of an outward and return journey in which
passengers who have originally departed from an airport located in the
territory of a Member State to which the EC Treaty applies travel back
to that airport on a flight from an airport located in a non-member
country. The fact that the outward and return flights are the subject of
a single booking has no effect on the interpretation of that provision.

(1) OJ C 155, 7.7.2007.

for

Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 10 July 2008
(reference
from the
preliminary
Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main — Germany) —
Emirates Airlines Direktion für Deutschland v Diether
Schenkel

ruling

a

(Case C-173/07) (1)

(Carriage by air — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 —
Compensation for passengers in the event of cancellation of a
flight — Scope — Article 3(1)(a) — Concept of ‘flight’)

(2008/C 223/21)

Language of the case: German

Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 17 July 2008 —
Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of
Spain

(Case C-207/07) (1)

of a Member State

(Failure
obligations —
Articles 43 EC and 56 EC — National law making the acqui-
sition of shareholdings in undertakings which carry on regu-
lated activities in the energy sector and of the assets necessary
to carry on those activities subject to prior approval)

fulfil

to

(2008/C 223/22)

Language of the case: Spanish

Referring court

Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main

Parties

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Emirates Airlines Direktion für Deutschland

Defendant: Diether Schenkel

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

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