CELEX: C1999/160/53
Language: en
Date: 1999-06-05 00:00:00
Title: Case T-69/99: Action brought on 5 March 1999 by Eurotica Rendez-Vous Television Danish Satellite (DSTV) A/S against the Commission of the European Communities

5.6.1999              EN                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                          C 160/29
According to the applicant, the main errors of the Commission            By decision of 30 July 1998, the United Kingdom Secretary of
are:                                                                     State for Culture, Media and Sport suspended the relaying of
                                                                         the programme ‘Rendez-Vous Television’ on the ground that
— the reduction of the labour of the applicant,                          it manifestly and seriously infringed article 22 of Council
                                                                         Directive 89/552/EEC (the ‘Television Without Frontiers’
— the refusal to accept costs for third party assistance,                Directive, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Directive’) (1). This was
                                                                         followed by the commencement of various proceedings before
— the refusal to accept ‘other costs’ and                                the United Kingdom courts; however, those proceedings did
                                                                         not prevent the entry into force of the Secretary of State’s
— the refusal to accept, for the period from 1 June 1996 to              Decision on 11 September 1998.
     30 November 1996, any of the costs submitted by the
     applicant.
                                                                         The Commission, having received notification of that decision,
                                                                         informed the United Kingdom authorities, by the contested
                                                                         decision, that the suspension measures in issue were compat-
                                                                         ible with Community law.
Action brought on 5 March 1999 by Eurotica Rendez-
Vous Television Danish Satellite (DSTV) A/S against the                  By the present application, the applicant seeks annulment of
         Commission of the European Communities                          that decision, on the ground that the United Kingdom has
                                                                         infringed the principles of non-discrimination and pro-
                         (Case T-69/99)                                  portionality in its interpretation of article 22 of the Directive.
                        (1999/C 160/53)
                                                                         The applicant maintains that, whilst article 22 of the Directive
                   (Language of the case: French)                        confers on the Member States extensive powers to assess
                                                                         whether television broadcasts include programmes which
                                                                         might be seriously harmful to minors, in particular where they
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                contain pornography or gratuitous violence, and despite
ties was brought before the Court of the First Instance of               the considerable leeway which the Member States enjoy in
the European Communities on 5 March 1999 by Eurotica                     interpreting that concept, they are none the less required, in so
Rendez-Vous Television Danish Satellite (DSTV) A/S, the                  doing, to observe Community law and, in particular, the
registered office of which is situated in Frederiksberg (Den-            principles of proportionality and non-discrimination.
mark), represented by Jean-Paul Hordies and Agnès Maqua, of
the Brussels Bar, with an address for service in Luxembourg at
the offices of Fiduciaire Myson SARL, 30, rue de Cessange.
                                                                         The measures taken by the United Kingdom authorities are:
The applicant claims that the Court should:
— annul the Decision of the Commission of 22 December                    — discriminatory, since similar, if not ‘harder’, programmes
     1998, adopted on the basis of article 22 Directive                       are currently relayed on the territory of the United
     89/552/EEC, by which it decided that the measures                        Kingdom, some of them with the benefit of a United
     adopted by the United Kingdom authorities, prohibiting                   Kingdom permit,
     the relaying of the applicant’s programme within the
     territory of that country, are in conformity with Com-
     munity law,                                                         — contrary to the principle of proportionality, since the
                                                                              applicant has taken all possible measures — including, in
— order the defendant to pay all the costs.                                   particular, those referred to in article 22 of the Directive
                                                                              — to protect minors, and
Pleas in law and main arguments
                                                                         — contrary to article 59 of the EC Treaty.
The applicant, a special-interest television channel established
under Danish law, the majority interest in which is held by a
Luxembourg holding company, distributes and sells a tele-
vision programme which is relayed by satellite under the name
‘Eurotica Rendez-Vous Television’. It offers that service, in            (1) Council Directive 89/552/EEC of 3 October 1989 on the coordi-
particular, to viewers in various Member States, including the               nation of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or
United Kingdom. The broadcasts begin at about 00.30 a.m.                     administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of
and finish at 5.00 a.m. Between 00.10 a.m. and 00.30 a.m.,                   television broadcasting activities (OJ L 298, 17.10.1989, p. 23;
the programme is relayed via the PAL system and in unencoded                 corrigendum: OJ L 331, 16.11.1989, p. 51).
form (for promotional purposes); from 00.30 a.m. to 5.00
a.m., the transmission is encrypted, inasmuch as the pro-
gramme then comprises three films of an erotic nature. The
transmission of the program and the content of what is
broadcast are strictly controlled.