CELEX: C2004/071/70
Language: en
Date: 2004-03-20 00:00:00
Title: Case T-25/04: Action brought on 22 January 2004 by González y Díez S.A. against the Commission of the European Communities

C 71/40                 EN                         Official Journal of the European Union                                       20.3.2004
The applicant claims that the Court should:                                Action brought on 22 January 2004 by González y Díez
                                                                           S.A. against the Commission of the European Communi-
                                                                                                           ties
—     annul the decision of the Second Board of Appeal dated
      the 17 November 2003;
                                                                                                     (Case T-25/04)
—     direct that the applicant’s application for a declaration of
      invalidity fails;                                                                              (2004/C 71/70)
—     order the Office to pay the appellant’s costs here and                                  (Language of the case: Spanish)
      below or order the Office to pay the appellant’s costs
      here and direct that the applicant pay the appellant’s costs
      below.
                                                                           An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
                                                                           ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
                                                                           European Communities on 22 January 2004 by González y
                                                                           Díez S.A., whose registered office is at Villabona-Llanera
Pleas in law and main arguments                                            (Asturias, Spain), represented by J. Díez-Hochleitner and
                                                                           A. Martínez Sánchez, lawyers.
Community trade mark           Word Mark ‘FUSION’ — Appli-
sought:                        cation No 1061050 for products              The applicant claims that the Court should:
                               within class 9 (Audio, video and
                               security equipment for vehicles).
                                                                           —     annul in their entirety Articles 1, 3 and 4 of the
                                                                                 Commission decision of 5 November 2003 on aid for
Proprietor of mark or          The Applicant.                                    González y Díez S.A. to cover exceptional expenses. (aid
sign whose cancellation                                                          for 2001 and misuse of aid for 1998 and 2000), and in
is sought:                                                                       so far as that decision amends Decision 2002/827/ECSC;
                                                                                 and
Applicant for cancel-          Ford Motor Company, in relation
lation:                        to Community trade mark regis-              —     order the Commission to pay the costs.
                               tration No 747121 of the word
                               mark ‘FUSION’ for goods in class-
                               es 12 (Motor land vehicles and
                               parts and fittings therefore) and
                               37 (Motor vehicles maintenance              Pleas in law and main arguments
                               and repair services).
Decision of the Cancel-        Application upheld.                         The Decision challenged in the present proceedings abrogates
lation Division:                                                           Articles 1, 2 and 5 of Decision 2002/827/ECSC of 2 July 2002
                                                                           on the granting by Spain of aid to the undertaking González y
                                                                           Díez S.A. in 1998, 2000 and 2001. That decision has already
Decision of the Board of       Appeal dismissed.
                                                                           been the subject of a previous action, brought by the same
Appeal:
                                                                           company (1).
Pleas in law:                  —     The notion of similarity of
                                     customers as set out in the           The Decision challenged:
                                     contested decision is wrong.
                               —     The conclusion that the               —     states in Article 1 that certain aid for the coal industry
                                     goods set out in the respect-               granted to the applicant to cover exceptional restructur-
                                     ive registrations are at least              ing costs totalling EUR 3131726,47 constitutes an abuse
                                     similar is wrong.                           of Commission Decisions 98/637/ECSC (2) and 2001/
                                                                                 162/ECSC (3) of 3 June 1998 and 13 December 2000
                                                                                 respectively on the granting by Spain of aid to the
                                                                                 coal industry in 1998 and 2000 and are, therefore,
                                                                                 incompatible with the common market;
 ---pagebreak--- 20.3.2004               EN                         Official Journal of the European Union                                               C 71/41
—      declares, in Article 3, that certain aid that Spain intends         The applicant claims that the Court should:
       to grant to the applicant to cover exceptional restructur-
       ing costs in 2001 are incompatible with Article 7 of                —      Annul the decision of the appointing authority of
       Council Regulation (EC) No 1407/2002 of 23 July 2002                       20 December 2002 confirming the applicant’s initial
       on State aid to the coal industry (4);                                     classification in Grade A 7;
—      requires Spain, in Article 4, to recover, among other               —      Annul, to the extent necessary, the decision of the
       amounts, the aid mentioned in Article 1.                                   appointing authority of 9 October 2003 rejecting the
                                                                                  applicant’s complaint;
In support of its claims, the applicant alleges:                           —      Order the defendant to pay all of the costs of the
                                                                                  proceedings.
—      lack of competence on the part of the Commission to
       adopt the decision challenged, following the expiry of the
       ECSC Treaty;
                                                                           Pleas in law and main arguments
—      the inappropriateness of the procedure followed in
       adopting the decision challenged, the Commission having
       failed to previously to revoke Articles 1, 2 and 5 of               Following the Court’s judgment in Case T-17/95 (1), the
       Decision 2002/827/ECSC;                                             Commission adopted an amendment of the rules on the
                                                                           criteria applicable to appointment in grade and classification
                                                                           in step on recruitment. By the contested decision, it confirmed
—      infringement of the principle of legal certainty and                the applicant’s classification in Grade A 7 at the date of his
       cumulative procedural errors, inasmuch as Article 1 of              recruitment and for that reason rejected his request to be
       the decision challenged treats as unlawful and incompat-            reclassified.
       ible with the common market certain aid authorised by
       Decision 98/637/ECSC, even though that aid had already
       been held to be justified in Decision 2002/827/ECSC.                In support of his action, the applicant invokes the lack of
                                                                           reasoning in the contested decision, a manifest error of
—      a manifest error of assessment of the facts, inasmuch as            appraisal and alleged discrimination between the applicant
       the Commission failed to take the view that certain aid             himself, whose request to be reclassified was rejected, and
       granted to the applicant to cover exceptional restructur-           other officials who, having professional experience as long as
       ing costs was justified.                                            his own, were able to secure reclassification.
(1 ) T-291/02 González y Díez v Commission (OJ 2002 C 289, p. 33).         (1) Judgment of the Court of First Instance of the European Communi-
(2 ) OJ 1998 L 303, p. 57                                                      ties of 5 October 1995; published in OJ 1995 C 315 of
(3 ) OJ 2001 L 58, p. 24                                                       25.11.1995, p. 14.
(4 ) OJ 2002 L 205, p. 1.
                                                                           Action brought on 27 January 2004 by the El Corte Inglés
Action brought on 20 January 2004 by Jacques Verborgh                      S.A. against the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal
   against the Commission of the European Communities                                                     Market
                                                                                                      (Case T-27/04)
                          (Case T-26/04)
                                                                                                     (2004/C 71/72)
                          (2004/C 71/71)
                                                                                               (Language of the case: Spanish)
                    (Language of the case: French)
                                                                           An action against the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                  Market (OHIM) was brought before the Court of First Instance
ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the                 of the European Communities on 27 January 2004 by El Corte
European Communities on 20 January 2004 by Jacques                         Inglés, established in Madrid, represented by lawyers J.-L. Rivas
Verborgh, residing in Aalter (Belgium), represented by Nicolas             Zurdo and E. López Leiva, members of the Ilustre Colegio de
Lhoëst, lawyer, with an address for service in Luxembourg.                 Madrid.