Case C-148/10: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 13 October 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Hof van beroep te Brussel (Belgium)) — DHL International NV, formerly Express Line NV v Belgisch Instituut voor Postdiensten en Telecommunicatie (Postal services — External procedures for dealing with users’ complaints — Directive 97/67/EC — Article 19 — Scope — Additional to means of redress available under national law and under European Union law — Freedom of action of Member States — Restrictions — Article 49 TFEU — Freedom of establishment)
Date: 2011-10-13
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: consumer protection, domestic market, interpretation of the law, postal service, quality standard








C_2011355EN.01000601.xml










3.12.2011   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 355/6





Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 13 October 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Hof van beroep te Brussel (Belgium)) — DHL International NV, formerly Express Line NV v Belgisch Instituut voor Postdiensten en Telecommunicatie
(Case C-148/10) (1)

(Postal services - External procedures for dealing with users’ complaints - Directive 97/67/EC - Article 19 - Scope - Additional to means of redress available under national law and under European Union law - Freedom of action of Member States - Restrictions - Article 49 TFEU - Freedom of establishment)
2011/C 355/08
Language of the case: Dutch

Referring court

Hof van beroep te Brussel

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: DHL International NV, formerly Express Line NV

Defendant: Belgisch Instituut voor Postdiensten en Telecommunicatie

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Hof van Beroep te Brussel — Interpretation of Article 17 of Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services and the improvement of quality of service (OJ 1998 L 15, p. 14), as amended by Directives 2002/39/EC (OJ 2002 L 176, p. 21) and 2008/6/EC (OJ 2008 L 52, p. 3) — Procedures for dealing with complaints from users of postal services — External scheme for dealing with complaints

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services and the improvement of quality of service, in its original version and in the versions as amended by Directive 2002/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 June 2002 and by Directive 2008/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which imposes on providers of postal services which are outside the scope of the universal service a mandatory external procedure for dealing with complaints from users of those services;










2.


Article 49 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which imposes on providers of postal services which are outside the scope of the universal service a mandatory external procedure for dealing with complaints from users of those services.






(1)  OJ C 161, 19.6.2010.