CELEX: C1997/271/11
Language: en
Date: 1997-09-06 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Handelsgericht Wien by order of that court of 24 March 1997 in the case of Pfeiffer Großhandel GmbH v. Löwa Warenhandel GmbH (Case C-255/97)

C 271 /8             1 EN 1               Official Journal of the European Communities                                    6 . 9 . 97
    — breach of the principle of proportionality: if, in             2.  Is it relevant that in Austria most nurseries are State­
         observance of the Commission's interim measure,                 run or State-aided ?
         Portugal were to take the step of suspending
         immediately the State's guarantee, the creditor
         banks could demand immediate payment by the
         State of EPAC 's credit — which would thus be
         rendered insolvent and consequently have to be
         wound up — or directly from the Portuguese State            Reference for a preliminary ruling from the
         on the basis of its contractual responsibility.             Handelsgericht Wien by order of that court of 24 March
                                                                     1997 in the case of Pfeiffer Großhandel GmbH v. Löwa
                                                                                          Warenhandel GmbH
         The measure which the Commission seeks to
         impose is, therefore, manifestly fundamental and                                   ( Case C-255/97)
         inappropriate and absolutely disproportionate to                                     ( 97/C 271/11 )
         any damage — which the Commission did not
         even attempt to identify — which might arise from
         the State's maintaining the guarantee until the final       Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the
         decision,                                                   European Communities by an order of the Handelsgericht
                                                                     Wien ( Commercial Court, Vienna ) of 24 March 1997,
                                                                     which was received at the Court Registry on 14 July 1997,
    — failure of the Commission to provide figures for its           for a preliminary ruling in the case of Pfeiffer Großhandel
         accounting: the mere granting of the State                  GmbH v. Löwa Warenhandel GmbH on the following
         guarantee does not constitute aid since the                 question:
         guarantee cannot be described as aid inasmuch as
          EPAC is not due payment of amounts owed by                 Is Article 30 or Article 52 et seq. of the EC Treaty to be
         way of capital or interest from the State acting as         interpreted as precluding the application of national
         guarantor on behalf of a debtor undertaking, nor            provisions which require that in the case of trade marks or
         would it be sufficient that EPAC's claim against            designations of undertakings which are liable to be
          Silopor, for which the State is liable, were satisfied     confused the one with earlier priority is to be protected,
          for EPAC to be able to dispense entirely with the          and hence prohibit an undertaking from using, in three
          State's guarantee and completely recover its               provinces of Austria, a trade mark or designation under
          financial equilibrium .                                    which companies in the same group lawfully operate in
                                                                     other Member States ?
Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Landesgericht            Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Tribunal de
Linz by order of that court of 24 October 1996 in the case           Commerce, Brussels, by judgment of that court of 7 July
of Gabriele Gruber v. Silhouette International Schmied               1997 in the case of Procureur du Roi v. Déménagements-
                       GmbH & Co KG .                                Manutention       Transport SA, abbreviated       as     D.M.
                        ( Case C-249/97)                                                         Transport
                                                                                            ( Case C-256/97)
                           97/C 271 / 10
                                                                                              ( 97/C 271 /12 )
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the               Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the
European Communities by an order of the Landesgericht                European Communities by judgment of the Tribunal de
Linz ( Labour and Social Court) of 24 October 1996,                  Commerce ( Commercial Court), Brussels of 7 July 1997,
which was received at the Court Registry on 8 July 1997,             received at the Court Registry on 15 July 1997, for a
for a preliminary ruling in the case of Gabriele Gruber v.           preliminary ruling in the case of Procureur du Roi against
Silhouette International Schmied GmbH & Co KG on the                 Déménagements-Manutention Transport SA, abbreviated
following questions :                                                as D.M. Transport, on the following questions:
                                                                     1 . Is Article 92 of the Treaty to be interpreted as
1 . Is it compatible with Article 119 of the EC Treaty                   meaning that measures in the form of payment
    that, owing to lack of child-care facilities,                        facilities granted by a public body such as the ONSS
    predominantly women have to terminate their                          enabling a commercial company to retain over a
    employment in order to look after their children and                 period of at least eight years a proportion of the sums
    these women, despite fulfilment of additional                        collected from staff and to use those sums in support
    conditions ( longer service ), receive no more than half             of its commercial activities, when that undertaking is
    of the compensation payable upon termination of                      unable to obtain funding under normal market
    employment for the actual length of their service                    conditions or to increase its capital, are to be
     ( Paragraph 23a ( 3 ) of the Angestelltengesetz ) whilst            considered State aid within the meaning of that
    men keep the full compensation period ?                               article ?