Jersey Produce Marketing Organisation Ltd v States of Jersey and Jersey Potato Export Marketing Board.
Date: 2005-11-08
40. In that regard, it is also appropriate to point out that, according to the Court’s settled case-law, the absence of a common organisation of the market in a particular agricultural sector is irrelevant to the application of Articles 28 EC and 29 EC to trade in that sector’s goods; the Court has held that such was particularly the case as regards the Member States which adhered to the Community by virtue of the 1972 Act of Accession (see, precisely in relation to the potato sector, Case 68/76 Commission  v France  [1977] ECR 515, paragraphs 17 to 21; Case 231/78 Commission  v United Kingdom  [1979] ECR 1447, paragraphs 12 to 18; and Case 288/83 Commission  v Ireland  [1985] ECR 1761, paragraph 23).
42. The referring court explained in the context of a previous case that Jersey is a semi-autonomous dependency of the British Crown, which is represented on Jersey by the Lieutenant Governor. The United Kingdom Government, on behalf of the Crown, is responsible for defence and international relations (see, in that regard, Case C-171/96 Pereira Roque  [1998] ECR I‑4607, paragraph 11).
45. It is appropriate, first of all, to recall that the Court has previously stated that, just as the distinction between Channel Islanders and other citizens of the United Kingdom cannot be likened to the difference in nationality between the nationals of two Member States, neither, because of other aspects of the status of those Islands, can relations between the Channel Islands and the United Kingdom be regarded as similar to those between two Member States ( Pereira Roque , cited above, paragraphs 41 and 42).
55. It is settled case-law that any pecuniary charge, whatever its designation and mode of application, which is imposed unilaterally on goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier, and which is not a customs duty in the strict sense, constitutes a charge having equivalent effect within the meaning of Articles 23 EC and 25 EC, even though such pecuniary charge is not levied for the benefit of the State (see, in particular, Joined Cases 2/69 and 3/69 Sociaal Fonds voor de Diamantarbeiders  [1969] ECR 211, paragraph 18; Case 158/82 Commission  v Denmark  [1983] ECR 3573, paragraph 18; Case C‑130/93 Lamaire  [1994] ECR I‑3215, paragraph 13; Joined Cases C‑441/98 and C‑442/98 Michaïlidis  [2000] ECR I‑7145, paragraph 15, and Case C-234/99 Nygård  [2002] ECR I‑3657, paragraph 19).
56. It is otherwise only if the charge in question constitutes payment for a service actually rendered in an amount proportionate to that service or if it relates to a general system of internal dues applied systematically and in accordance with the same criteria to domestic products and imported and exported products alike, or again, subject to certain conditions, if it is levied on account of inspections carried out for the purpose of fulfilling obligations imposed by Community law (see, in particular, Commission  v Denmark , cited above, paragraph 19, and Lamaire , cited above, paragraph 14).
60. A contribution imposed on the producers thus registered which is calculated by the PEMB by reference to the quantities of potatoes produced by the party concerned and exported from Jersey to the United Kingdom certainly constitutes a pecuniary charge levied by reason of such exports, which applies to them exclusively without relating to a general system of internal dues applied systematically and in accordance with the same criteria, irrespective of the origin, exporting country or destination of the goods subject to it, and which does not represent consideration for a specific or individual benefit provided to the trader, in an amount proportionate to that service (see, by analogy, Lamaire , paragraph 19).
62. In that regard, it is appropriate to point out that, in paragraph 32 of its judgment in Lancry and Others , cited above, the Court ruled that a charge proportional to their customs value, levied by a Member State on all goods entering a region within that State, constitutes a charge having equivalent effect to a customs duty on imports not only in so far as it is levied on goods entering that region from other Member States, but also in so far as it is levied on goods entering that region from another part of the same State.
63. In paragraphs 26 and 27 of its judgment in Simitzi , cited above, the Court held, moreover, that the same reasoning had to apply in the case of a charge levied on goods despatched from one region to other regions of the same State, before concluding that ad valorem charges levied by a Member State on goods despatched from one region solely to other regions of the same State constituted charges having an effect equivalent to customs duties on exports.
64. The Treaty sought, in that regard, to give general scope and effect to the rule on the elimination of customs duties and charges having equivalent effect in order to ensure the free movement of goods. The customs union necessarily implies that the free movement of goods should be ensured between Member States and, in more general terms, within the customs union (see Case C-30/01 Commission  v United Kingdom  [2003] ECR I-9481, paragraphs 52 and 53).
73. As regards Article 29 EC, it is appropriate to note that, according to settled case-law, that provision covers measures which have as their specific object or effect the restriction of patterns of exports and thereby the establishment of a difference in treatment between the domestic trade of a Member State and its export trade, in such a way as to provide a particular advantage for national production or for the domestic market of the State in question, at the expense of the trade or production of other Member States (see, inter alia, Case 15/79 Groenveld  [1979] ECR 3409, paragraph 7, and Case C-3/91 Exportur  [1992] ECR I-5529, paragraph 21).
80. It follows that the restrictions introduced by the 2001 Act with regard to Jersey Royal potatoes despatched to the United Kingdom, the main effect of which, as has been pointed out in paragraphs 75 and 76 of this judgment, is to restrict such patterns of export, are, ultimately, also likely to be an obstacle to the export of those goods to other Member States and to have, with regard to the latters’ markets, the same negative effect as that observed in respect of the United Kingdom market.
84. It is appropriate, finally, to add that a contribution imposed on producers by the PEMB by reference to the areas which they use for growing potatoes would be contrary to Community law to the extent to which it serves to finance the activities of that body thus held to be contrary to Article 29 EC (see Case 222/82 Apple and Pear Development Council  [1983] ECR 4083, paragraphs 32 and 33).