CELEX: 62012CA0367
Language: en
Date: 2014-02-13 00:00:00
Title: Case C-367/12: Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 13 February 2014 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Unabhängiger Verwaltungssenat des Landes Oberösterreich (Austria)) — Proceedings initiated by Susanne Sokoll-Seebacher (Freedom of establishment — Public health — Article 49 TFEU — Pharmacies — Adequate supply of medicinal products to the public — Operating authorisation — Territorial distribution of pharmacies — Establishment of limits essentially based on a demographic criterion — Minimum distance between pharmacies)

29.3.2014   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 93/9
            
         Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 13 February 2014 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Unabhängiger Verwaltungssenat des Landes Oberösterreich (Austria)) — Proceedings initiated by Susanne Sokoll-Seebacher
   (Case C-367/12) (1)
   
   (Freedom of establishment - Public health - Article 49 TFEU - Pharmacies - Adequate supply of medicinal products to the public - Operating authorisation - Territorial distribution of pharmacies - Establishment of limits essentially based on a demographic criterion - Minimum distance between pharmacies)
   2014/C 93/13
   Language of the case: German
   
      Referring court
   
   Unabhängiger Verwaltungssenat des Landes Oberösterreich
   
      Parties to the main proceedings
   
   Susanne Sokoll-Seebacher
   
      Third party: Agnes Hemetsberger, successor to Susanna Zehetner
   
      Re:
   
   Request for a preliminary ruling — Unabhängiger Verwaltungssenat des Landes Oberösterreich — Interpretation of Article 49 TFEU and Articles 16 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Member State's rules which make the award of a concession to operate a pharmacy subject to an assessment of the needs of the market based on a number of complex and almost unforeseeable criteria.
   
      Operative part of the judgment
   
   Article 49 TFEU, in particular the requirement that the desired objective be achieved in a consistent manner, must be interpreted as precluding legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which lays down, as an essential criterion for determining whether a need for the establishment of a new pharmacy exists, a rigid limit on the ‘people remaining to be served’, where the competent authorities cannot depart from that limit to take account of particular local geographical conditions.
   
      (1)  OJ C 331, 27.10.2012.