CELEX: C1998/358/31
Language: en
Date: 1998-11-21 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 19 June 1998 by A. Alferink and Others against the Commission of the European Communities (Case T-94/98)

C 358/16              EN                Official Journal of the European Communities                                   21.11.98
Action brought on 19 June 1998 by A. Alferink and                  Action brought on 20 August 1998 by Hewlett Packard
Others against the Commission of the European                      France against the Commission of the European
                          Communities                                                       Communities
                        (Case T-94/98)                                                    (Case T-133/98)
                         (98/C 358/31)                                                     (98/C 358/32)
                                                                                    (Language of the case: French)
                (Language of the case: Dutch)
                                                                   An action against the Commission of the European
An action against the Commission of the European                   Communities was brought before the Court of First
Communities was brought before the Court of First                  Instance of the European Communities on 20 August
Instance of the European Communities on 19 June 1998               1998 by Hewlett Packard France, the registered office of
by A. Alferink and others, all residing in the Netherlands,        which is at Courcouronnes (France), represented by
represented by H. J. Bronkhorst, of the Hague Bar, and             Fabrice Goguel and Anne Trager, of the Paris Bar, with an
E. H. Pijnacker Hordijk, of the Brussels Bar, with an              address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of
address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of T.            Aloyse May, 31 Grand-rue.
Loesch, 11 rue Goethe.
                                                                   The applicant claims that the Court should:
The applicants claim that the Court should:
                                                                   Ð annul Commission Decision 98/406/EC published on
                                                                        pages 45 and 46 of the Official Journal of the
Ð order the Commission to pay the sums specified in the                 European Communities of 23 June 1998, requiring
     application by way of compensation for the damage                  the revocation of binding Tariff Information No
     suffered by the applicants as a result of the defective            FR 12030199700151, which had correctly classified
     enactment of Article 3(a) of Commission Regulation                 HP JetDirect EX Plus (and Ex Plus 3) machines under
     (EEC) No 1546/88 (1), together with interest thereon               heading 8471.80.10;
     at the rate of 8 % per annum from 23 February 1998
     until the date of full settlement;
                                                                   Ð order the Commission to pay all the costs.
Ð order the Commission to pay the costs.
                                                                   Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:                The applicant, a company incorporated under French law
                                                                   which imports into France and manufactures in that
                                                                   country hardware and software for use in the operation of
The applicants, all of whom are SLOM farmers who have              local area networks' (LANs), contests the revocation of
made use of business assets leased from third parties,             Binding Tariff Information No FR 12030199700151
complain that the Commission has acted unlawfully by               issued by the French customs authorities, which classified
enacting defective legislation. They consider that the             HP JetDirect EX Plus/Ex Plus 3 machines under heading
interpretation applied to the abovementioned provision Ð           8471.80.10 in accordance with the combined Community
according to which, before a definitive reference quantity         nomenclature. The machines in question consist of an
can be allocated, milk production must be resumed by the           electronic card of the Jet Direct type which is inserted in a
original SLOM undertaking or through the same                      unit linked to one or more printers, enabling several
economic and organisational unit as originally existed at          computers within a local area network to have access to
the time when the SLOM undertaking was entered into Ð              and control of that printer or those printers. As a result of
is inconsistent with the wording of the article in question,       the contested revocation decision, the French Directorate-
with Council Regulation (EEC) No 1078/77 (2) and with              General of Customs has had to classify the machine in
the rules implementing it. The Commission has not clearly          question under heading 8517.50.
formulated the restriction which it sought to introduce
and has thus breached the principle of due diligence.
                                                                   In support of its claims, the applicant maintains that the
                                                                   defendant has incorrectly assessed the general rules for the
(1) OJ L 139, 4.6.1988, p. 12.                                     interpretation of the combined nomenclature, laid down in
(2) OJ L 131, 26.5.1977, p. 1.                                     Section 1.A of Part I of Annex I to Council Regulation
                                                                   (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and
                                                                   statistical nomenclature and on the common customs
                                                                   tariff, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2509/97.