CELEX: C1996/108/06
Language: en
Date: 1996-04-13 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Landgericht Hamburg by order of that court of 4 October 1995 in the case of V.A.G. Händlerbeirat e.V. v. SYD-Consult (Case C-41/96)

No C 108 /4              EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                      13 . 4 . 96
right to a fair hearing, the right of each party to be heard, the        impervious merely in theory, or impervious in theory and in
principle of the equality of both parties before the court and           practice ?
the obligation to give an adequate statement of reasons . In
any event, the Court of First Instance failed :                          (') OJ 1985 L 15 , p . 16 .
— to allow the appellants access to the data on the basis of
       which the Commission determined the basic exchange
       rates used in order to fix the weightings referred to in the      Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunale Civile
       Regulations at issue and, consequently, to enable the             e Penale di Venezia by order of that court of 2 February
       appellants to submit observations in that regard ,                         1996 in the case of Immobiliare S.I.F. SpA v.
                                                                                   Amministrazione delle Finanze dello Stato
— to make an accurate and impartial examination of all the
       information relevant to the cases,                                                           ( Case C-42/ 96 )
                                                                                                      ( 96/C 108/07
— to take into account many of the arguments adduced by
       the appellants,                                                   Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the
                                                                         European Communities by an order of the Tribunale Civile
— to give reasons — or, at any rate, to give adequate                    e Penale di Venezia ( Civil and Criminal Court, Venice ) of
       reasons — for its own decision, which is based on                 2 February 1996 , which was received at the Court Registry
       assertions which not only disregard the points made by            on 13 February 1 996 , for a preliminary ruling in the case of
       the appellants, but are also, in more than one instance,          Immobiliare S.I. F. SpA v. Amministrazione delle Finanze
       tautologous and/or subjective .                                   dello Stato, in which the Court is requested to :
The Court of First Instance has not only failed to comply                'give a ruling on the question concerning the application of
with obligations specifically incumbent upon it, but has                 Articles 4, 7 and 10 of Council Directive 69/335/EEC of
also, by making such a ruling, enabled a factual situation to            17 July 1969 (^ concerning indirect taxes on the raising of
persist which is contrary to Community law.                              capital, as amended by Council Directive 73/80/EEC of
                                                                         9 April 1973 ( 2 ) in the case brought by the plaintiff and on
(') OJ No L 383 of 29 . 12 . 1992 , p . 1 .                              whether the application of those provisions precludes the
( 2 ) Ibid ., p . 9 .                                                    charging of any other taxation, in particular the taxes
( 3 ) Ibid ., p . 11 .                                                   charged by the Italian Registry Office, including Invim
                                                                         (Imposta communale sull'incremento di valore dei beni
                                                                         immobili — municipal tax on the increase in value of
                                                                         immovables ); if so, is the applicable rate 2 % or the reduced
                                                                         rate ?'
Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Landgericht
Hamburg by order of that court of 4 October 1995 in the                  (') OJ, English Special Edition 1969 ( II ), p . 412 .
       case of V.A.G. Hàndlerbeirat e . V. v. SYD-Consult                ( 2 ) OJ 1973 L 103 , p . 15 .
                           ( Case C-41 /96 )
                             ( 96/C 108 /06 )
                                                                         Action brought on 15 February 1996 by the Federal
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                   Republic of Germany against the Commission of the
European Communities by an order of the Landgericht                                           European Communities
( Regional Court) Hamburg of 4 October 1995 , which was                                               Case C-46/96 )
received at the Court Registry on 13 February 1996 , for a
preliminary ruling in the case of V.A.G. Hàndlerbeirat e.V.                                           ( 96/C 108/08 )
v . SYD-Consult on the following question:
                                                                         An action against the Commission of the European
                                                                         Communities was brought before the Court of Justice of the
in the light of the judgment of the Court of Justice of
                                                                         European Communities on 15 February 1 996 by the Federal
 13 January 1994 in Case C-376/92 Metro SB-Grotëmàrkte
v. Cartier, is it compatible with Community law, in
                                                                         Republic of Germany, represented by Ernst Rôder,
                                                                         Ministerialrat in the Federal Ministry of Economic
particular with the principle of the unrestricted and uniform            Affairs .
application of Community law, if German national law
applies in such a way that proceedings for an injunction                 The applicant claims that the Court should :
restraining the distribution of products covered by a
selective distribution system exempted from application of               — annul Decision (K 95 ) 3319 final of the Commission of
Article 85 ( 1 ) by a block exemption of the Commission of                     29 November 1995 concerning fiscal aid in the field of
the European Communities (') may be brought against                            depreciation favouring German undertakings ( J ),
outsiders who obtain those products outside such a selective
distribution system only if — in addition to satisfying the              — order the defendant to pay the costs .
 further requirements of Paragraph 1 of the Gesetz gegen den             Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
 unlauteren Wettbewerb ( Law against Unfair Competition,
UWG ) — the selective distribution system is impervious                  Infringement of the EC Treaty ( the constituent criteria
 ( liickenlos ), specific reference being made to the alternative        laid down in Article 92 ( 1 ) of the EC Treaty are not
 of the selective distribution system being required to be               fulfilled ):