CELEX: C2001/200/94
Language: en
Date: 2001-07-14 00:00:00
Title: Case C-195/01: Reference for a preliminary ruling by the House of Lords, by order of that court of 4 April 2001, in the case of Scandecor Development AB and others against Scandecor Marketing AB and another

14.7.2001             EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                      C 200/53
—    Infringement of Article 1(4) of Directive 91/689/EEC:              4.    Article 12 of the Trade Marks Directive provides that a
     Under the first indent of Article 1(4), a precise and                    trade mark shall be ‘liable’ to revocation in specified
     uniform definition of hazardous waste, required for                      circumstances. When those circumstances exist, must the
     application of the directive, is achieved by reference to                court revoke the trade mark, or does the court retain any
     Annexes I, II and III to the directive and the list of                   discretion as to whether to revoke?
     hazardous waste to be drawn up in accordance with the
     procedure laid down in Article 18. It follows that, in their
     legislation to transpose the directive, the Member States          (1) OJ L 40, 11.2.1989, p. 1.
     must take those annexes and that list as a basis for
     determining the field of application of their national
     provisions. The list, which is contained in Council
     Decision 94/904/EC, supplements the provisions of the
     directive on hazardous waste.
     The possibility for the Member States to adopt stricter
     protective measures in fields harmonised by Community              Action brought on 8 May 2001 by the Commission of the
     environmental provisions is not to be equated with an              European Communities against the Grand Duchy of
     option not to transpose such harmonisation measures.                                          Luxembourg
                                                                                                 (Case C-196/01)
(1) OJ L 194, 25.7.1975, p. 47.
(2) OJ L 78, 26.3.1991, p. 32.                                                                   (2001/C 200/95)
                                                                        An action against the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was
                                                                        brought before the Court of Justice on 8 May 2001 by the
                                                                        Commission of the European Communities, represented by
                                                                        H. Støvlbaek and J. Adda, acting as Agents, with an address for
                                                                        service in Luxembourg.
Reference for a preliminary ruling by the House of Lords,               The applicant claims that the Court should:
by order of that court of 4 April 2001, in the case of                  —     declare that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has failed
Scandecor Development AB and others against Scandecor                         to comply with its obligations under Article 1(a) of
                   Marketing AB and another                                   Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on
                                                                              waste (1), as amended by Council Directive 91/156 EC of
                        (Case C-195/01)                                       18 March 1991 (2) and Commission Decision 94/3/EC of
                                                                              20 December 1993 establishing a list of wastes pursuant
                                                                              to Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on
                        (2001/C 200/94)                                       waste (3);
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                  —     order the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to pay the costs.
European Communities by an order of the House of Lords of
4 April 2001, which was received at the Court Registry on
7 May 2001, for a preliminary ruling in the case of Scandecor           Pleas in law and main arguments
Development AB and others against Scandecor Marketing AB
and another, on the following questions:
                                                                        —     Although the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was obliged,
                                                                              under the fourth paragraph of Article 249 EC, to
1.   Is a trade mark to be regarded as liable to mislead the
                                                                              incorporate the European Waste Catalogue (EWC), for-
     public within the meaning of article 12(2)(b) of Council
                                                                              ming the subject-matter of Decision 94/3/EC, into its
     Directive No 89/1104/EEC (1) of 21 December 1988 to
                                                                              national law, it has simply reproduced it in a ministerial
     approximate the laws of the Member States relating to
                                                                              circular which is binding on the administrative authorities
     trade marks (the ‘Trade Marks Directive’) if the origin of
                                                                              but not on third parties.
     the goods denoted by the mark is a bare exclusive
     licensee?                                                          —     At the same time, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
                                                                              introduced a nomenclature applying purely to Luxem-
2.   What are the criteria to be applied in determining whether               bourg, which is totally different from the EWC. Various
     a trading relationship comprises a single undertaking for                operations in respect of which use of the EWC is
     the purposes of the Trade Marks Directive?                               precluded are linked to the implementation of national
                                                                              measures designed to transpose the Community legis-
3.   Is a company a person for the purpose of article 6(1)(a)                 lation on waste. In addition, the coexistence of two lists
     of the Trade Marks Directive?                                            (the Luxembourg nomenclature and the EWC) between