CELEX: C1997/094/19
Language: en
Date: 1997-03-22 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Ufficio del Giudice di Pace di Genova by order of that court of 30 December 1996 in the case of Autotrasporti Librandi snc against Cuttica Spedizioni e Servizi Internazionali srl (Case C-38/97)

No C 94/ 10             EN                  Official Journal of the European Communities                                            22 . 3 . 97
     proportionality under the third paragraph of Article 3 b                 ( a ) the tariff proposal is drawn up on the basis of
     of the EC Treaty, and the principle of subsidiarity                            criteria which are described by the national
    -under the second paragraph of Article 3b of the EC                             legislature as being in the public interest and
     Treaty ?                                                                       defined in abstract terms by Law No 298/74 and
                                                                                    in detail by Presidential Decree No 56/78 , but in
                                                                                    practice refer to the characteristics of a 'typical
                                                                                    undertaking' specified by Decree No 56/78
                                                                                    (Articles 3 and 4 ) which no longer corresponds to
                                                                                    the realities of the market in question;
Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Ufficio del
Giudice di Pace di Genova by order of that court of
30 December 1996 in the case of Autotrasporti Librandi                        ( b ) the public authority's powers ( which have never
  snc against Cuttica Spedizioni e Servizi Internazionali srl                       been exercised ) to refer the committee's proposal
                                                                                    back to it and to adopt tariffs ex officio if the
                          Case C-38/97 )
                                                                                    committee's new proposal is not considered
                           ( 97/C 94/ 19 )                                          satisfactory are strictly confined to merely
                                                                                    examining whether the proposal is in accordance
                                                                                    with the criteria delegated by the legislature in
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                              1974 ( Article 53 of Law No 298/74 ) to secondary
European Communities by order of the Ufficio del Giudice                            implementing legislation adopted , in 1978
di Pace di Genova of 30 December 1996 in the case of                                (Presidential Decree No 56/78 ) and never since
Autotrasporti Librandi snc against Cuttica Spedizioni e                             updated;
Servizi Internazionali srl on the following questions :
1 . Is national legislation which provides for mandatory                      ( c ) the conditions for setting the mandatory tariff are
     tariffs for the carriage of goods by road to be                                fixed in that way and, more importantly, the
     approved and brought into force by the public                                  public authority's review of the legality of the
     authority on the basis of a proposal from a committee                          tariff is restricted to checking whether the tariff
     on which interested economic operators are in the                              proposed by the committee corresponds to the
     majority ( Ministerial Decree of 2 February 1994 )                             economic and technical data of a 'typical
     compatible with Articles 3 ( f) and (g), 5 , 85 and 86 of                      undertaking' which is not representative of the
     the Treaty, as interpreted by the judgment of the Court                        market in question;
     of Justice of 5 October 1995 in Case 96/94 Centro Ser­
     vizi Spediporto v. Spedizioni Marittima del Golfo H ?
                                                                              ( d ) in that context the public authority is given the
2 . If the answer to Question 1 is in the affirmative: is a                         task of ensuring that the tariff determined in that
     national provision ( Article 3 of Decree Law No 82/93                          way enables haulage undertakings to obtain a
    transposed by Law No 162/93 ) which extends                                     return described as 'fair' ( Article 52 of Law
     mandatory tariffs in the field of contracts for road                           No 298/74 ) but based on rigid and totally obsolete
     haulage services to cover other types of contract                              legislative data which cannot be reviewed by the
     relating to different services, such as, in particular,                        public authority even though they are now
     contracts whereby a contractor undertakes to achieve                           divorced from reality and consequently do not
     a particular result ( contratti di appalto ) and/or                            reflect the actual cost of the service provided by
    contracts for hire, compatible with Articles 3 ( f) and                         road-haulage undertakings ?
     (g ), 5 , 85 and 86 of the Treaty ?
3 . Does the concept of 'general interest' referred to by
                                                                       6 . In the alternative, the Court is asked to clarify what
    the Court of Justice in the judgments in Reiff (2 ) and
                                                                              concept of 'collective agreement' allows the national
    Delta correspond to the concept of 'public interest'
                                                                              court to decide that there is no tariff agreement
     mentioned by the Court, in a similar legal situation, in
                                                                              contrary to Article 85 of the Treaty.
    the judgment in Centro Servizi Spediporto v. Spedizio­
     ni Marittima del Golfo ( 3 )?
                                                                       ( 1 ) Case C-96/94 Centro Servizi Spediporto; judgment of
4. Is that concept ('general interest' and/or 'public                        5 October 1995 ( OJ No C 299, 11 . 11 . 1995 , p. 6 ).
                                                                       (2 ) Case C-185/91 Reiff [ 1993 ] ECR I, p. 5801 and Case C-153/
     interest') defined by Community law or left to the                      93 Delta [ 1994] ECR I, p . 2517.
    competence of the individual Member States ?                       ( 3 ) Case C-96/94 ( see footnote 1 ).
5 . In particular, can that concept cover a national
     situation     such  as    that  described   in   the  main
    proceedings in which :