Case C-183/22, Saint-Louis Sucre (Recognition of a producer organisation): Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 15 June 2023 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil d’État — France) — Saint-Louis Sucre v Premier ministre, Ministre de l’Agriculture et de l’Alimentation, SICA des betteraviers d’Etrepagny (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Agriculture — Common organisation of the markets — Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 — Statutes of producer organisations — Article 153(1)(b) — Rule that members may belong to only one producer organisation — Scope — Article 153(2)(c) — Democratic scrutiny by producer members of the producer organisation and the decisions taken within it — Control exercised by one person over certain members of a producer organisation)
Date: 2023-06-15
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: agricultural production, common organisation of markets, majority voting, producer organisation, shareholder, trade union confederation








C_2023271EN.01000602.xml










31.7.2023   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 271/6






Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 15 June 2023 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil d’État — France) — Saint-Louis Sucre v Premier ministre, Ministre de l’Agriculture et de l’Alimentation, SICA des betteraviers d’Etrepagny
(Case C-183/22, (1) Saint-Louis Sucre (Recognition of a producer organisation))
(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 - Statutes of producer organisations - Article 153(1)(b) - Rule that members may belong to only one producer organisation - Scope - Article 153(2)(c) - Democratic scrutiny by producer members of the producer organisation and the decisions taken within it - Control exercised by one person over certain members of a producer organisation)
(2023/C 271/08)
Language of the case: French

Referring court

Conseil d’État

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Saint-Louis Sucre

Defendants: Premier ministre, Ministre de l’Agriculture et de l’Alimentation, SICA des betteraviers d’Étrépagny

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 153(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007, as amended by Regulation (EU) No 2017/2393 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2017,
must be interpreted as meaning that the requirement of being a member of only one producer organisation applies solely to the members of the producer organisation that are producers.










2.


Article 153(2)(c) of Regulation No 1308/2013, as amended by Regulation 2017/2393
must be interpreted as meaning that in determining whether the statutes of a producer organisation lay down rules that enable its producer members to scrutinise democratically their organisation and its decisions, the national authority responsible for the recognition of that organisation must:






—


examine whether one person controls certain members of the producer organisation, having regard not only to the fact that that person holds a share of the capital of those members, but also to the fact that it maintains other types of relationships with those members, such as, in the case of non-producer members, their affiliation to the same trade union confederation or, in the case of producer members, their exercise of management responsibilities within such a confederation;










—


after verifying that the producer members of the producers organisation have a majority of the votes in the organisation’s general assembly, also examine whether, in view of the distribution of votes among members that are not controlled by other persons, one or more non-producer members are able, by virtue of the decisive influence they may therefore be able to exert, even without a majority, to control the decisions taken by the producer organisation.










(1)  OJ C 213, 30.5.2022.