CELEX: C1997/074/30
Language: en
Date: 1997-03-08 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Oberlandesgericht, Vienna, by order of that Court of 1 July 1996 in the competition case of Oscar Bronner GmbH & Co. KG against 1. Mediaprint Zeitungs- und Zeitschriftenverlag GmbH & Co. KG; 2. Mediaprint Zeitungsvertriebsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG; 3. Mediaprint Anzeigengesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (Case C-7/97)

8 . 3 . 97             EN ]                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                  No C 74/ 15
3 . If so, in which cases and on what grounds must                         with the publisher of a competing product dependent
      account be taken of the companies belonging to the                   upon the latter instructing him not only with home
      dominant legal person of a group of companies ?                      deliveries but also with other services ( e.g. marketing
                                                                           through sales points, printing ) within the context of an
(') OJ No C 132 , 14 . 5 . 1994, p . 4 .                                   overall package ?
Reference for a preliminary ruling by the                              Reference for a preliminary ruling from the
Oberlandesgericht, Vienna, by order of that Court of                   Maaseutuelinkeinojen Valituslautakunta by order of that
1 July 1996 in the competition case of Oscar Bronner                   tribunal of 9 January 1997 in the proceedings brought by
GmbH & Co. KG against 1 . Mediaprint Zeitungs- und                                               Raija-Liisa Jokela
Zeitschriftenverlag GmbH & Co. KG; 2 . Mediaprint Zei­                                            ( Case C-9/97 )
tungsvertriebsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG; 3 . Mediaprint
                                                                                                    ( 97/C 74/31 )
             Anzeigengesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
                           ( Case C-7/97 )
                             ( 97/C 74/30 )                            Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of
                                                                       the European Communities by an order of the
                                                                       Maaseutuelinkeinojen Valituslautakunta ( Rural Industries
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                 Appeals Board ) of 9 January 1997, which was received at
European Communities by order of the Oberlandesgericht                 the Court Registry on 16 January 1997, for a preliminary
(Higher Regional Court — acting as a competition court),               ruling in the proceedings brought by Raija-Liisa Jokela on
Vienna, of 1 July 1996, received at the Court Registry on              the following questions:
15 January 1997, for a preliminary ruling in the
competition case between the applicant, Oscar Brunner                  1 . Is it compatible with the aims of Articles 17 and 18 of
GmbH & Co . KG, and the defendants, 1 . Mediaprint                         Council Regulation (EEC ) No 2328/91 on improving
Zeitungs- und Zeitschriftenverlag GmbH & Co. KG;                           the efficiency of agricultural structures 0 ) and Article 1
2 . Mediaprint Zeitungsvertriebsgesellschaft mbH & Co .                    of Council Directive 75/268/EEC on mountain and hill
KG; 3 . Mediaprint Anzeigengesellschaft mbH & Co. KG,                      farming and farming in certain less-favoured areas ( 2 )
on the following questions:                                                for a compensatory allowance for natural handicaps to
                                                                           be granted to a farmer, if he does not live on a farm
1 . Is Article 86 of the EC Treaty to be interpreted in such               owned or controlled by him in Finland in a less­
      a way that there is an abuse of a dominant position, in              favoured area within the meaning of the said
      the sense of an abusive barring of access to the                     Directive, but lives for most of the year outside the
                                                                           said area ?
      market, where an undertaking which carries on the
      publication, production and marketing of daily
      newspapers, and with its products occupies a                         If the answer to the above question is affirmative, even
      predominant position on the Austrian market for daily                partly or conditionally:
      newspapers ( 46,8 % of total circulation, 42 % of
      advertising revenue and 71 % range of influence,                      ( a ) is it permissible, having regard to the said
      measured by the number of all daily newspapers ), and                       provisions and the principles of Article 5 , the
      operates the only intra-regional home-delivery                              second subparagraph of Article 40 ( 3 ), and indent
      distribution service for subscribers, refuses to make a                     ( a ) of the second paragraph of Article 42 of the
      binding offer to another undertaking engaged in the                         Treaty of Rome, and in particular to the principle
      publication, production and marketing of a daily                            of equal treatment of farmers and the associated
      newspaper in Austria to include that daily newspaper                        prohibition of discrimination set out there, to
      in its home-delivery scheme, in the light also of the                       require, in order to obtain the compensation for
      circumstance that it is not possible, on account of the                     natural handicaps referred to in paragraph 6 of the
      small circulation and the consequently small number                         decision of the national Council of State ( 861 /
      of subscribers, for the undertaking seeking inclusion in                    1995 ) in the case of a farmer living outside the
      the home-delivery scheme to build up its own home­                          farm and more than 12 kilometres distant by road
      delivery scheme for a reasonable outlay and operate it                      from the operational centre of the farm, that the
      profitably, either alone or in cooperation with the                         farmer both receives at least half his total income
      other undertakings offering daily newspapers on the                         from agriculture, horticulture and forestry and
      market ?                                                                    other activities carried on on the farm and also
                                                                                  carries on farming on the farm himself; and
2 . Does it amount to an abuse within the meaning of
      Article 86 of the EC Treaty, where, under the                         ( b ) is it consistent in particular with the principle of
      circumstances described in question 1 above, the                            legal certainty to be observed in the Community
      operator of the home-delivery scheme for daily                              legal order always also to require that a special
      newspapers makes the entry into business relations                          reason should exist ?