CELEX: C2003/135/20
Language: en
Date: 2003-06-07 00:00:00
Title: Case C-140/03: Action brought on 27 March 2003 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Hellenic Republic

C 135/14               EN                       Official Journal of the European Union                                          7.6.2003
—     order the Commission of the European Communities to                     sale of optician’s goods, the Hellenic Republic is
      pay the costs.                                                          restricting the conditions of establishment of natural
                                                                              persons working as opticians in breach of Article 43 EC.
                                                                        —     Declare that, by enacting and maintaining in force Law
Pleas in law and main arguments                                               No 91/119 and Law No 2646/98 under which the
                                                                              establishment by a legal person of a shop for the sale of
                                                                              optician’s goods is subject to the following conditions:
The applicant claims that the contested memoranda do not
appear to have been issued as a result of one of the procedures
for making decisions exhaustively provided for by the Com-                    —     authorisation of the establishment and operation of
mission’s internal rules, C(2000) 3614 of 29 November 2000,                         the shop for the sale of optician’s goods must
which renders null and void the contested measures, not least                       have been granted to a recognised optician/natural
in view of their content which is of external effect.                               person, the person holding the authorisation to
                                                                                    operate the shop must hold at least 50 % of the
                                                                                    company’s share capital, and must participate at
It further claims that the contested measures were adopted by                       least to that extent in the profits and losses of the
the Commission in manifest breach of Article 32 of Regulation                       company, and the company must be in the form of
EC No 1260/99 (1) and of and of Rule 1.1 and 1.2 in the annex                       a collective or limited partnership,
to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1685/2000 (2).
                                                                              —     the optician in question may participate at most in
Finally, it claims that the decisions adopted by way of the                         one other company owning a shop for the sale of
contested measures are invalid inasmuch as the statement of                         optical articles, subject to the conditions that the
reasons is defective and contradictory and because they                             authorisation for the establishment and operation
infringe the legitimate expectations of the applicant.                              of that shop is in the name of another authorised
                                                                                    optician,
( 1) OJ 1999 L 161, p. 1.
( 2) OJ 2000 L 193, p. 39.                                                    the Hellenic Republic has restricted the conditions of
                                                                              establishment of legal persons operating as opticians in
                                                                              Greece in a manner inconsistent with Article 43 EC and
                                                                              has infringed Article 48 in conjunction with Article 43 EC
                                                                              by imposing on legal persons conditions not applicable to
                                                                              natural persons,
                                                                        —     order the Hellenic Republic to pay the costs.
Action brought on 27 March 2003 by the Commission of
the European Communities against the Hellenic Republic
                          (Case C-140/03)
                                                                        Pleas in Law and Main Arguments
                          (2003/C 135/20)
                                                                        1.    Restrictions on freedom of establishment for natural
                                                                              persons.
An action against the European Communities was brought
before the Court of Justice on 27 March 2003 by the                     2.    Restrictions on freedom of establishment for legal per-
Commission of the European Communities, represented by                        sons.
Maria Patakia, of the legal service.
                                                                        3.    The abovementioned restrictions are not justified by the
The Commission claims that the Court should:                                  grounds put forward.
—     Declare that by enacting and maintaining in force Law
      No 971/79, which does not permit a qualified optician as
      a natural person to operate more than one shop for the