TV2/Danmark A/S v European Commission.
Date: 2017-11-09
34


It must be recalled that, in accordance with the Court’s settled case-law, it follows from Article 256 TFEU and the first paragraph of Article 58 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union and also from Article 168(1)(d) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court that an appeal must indicate precisely the contested elements of the judgment or order which the appellant seeks to have set aside and also the legal arguments specifically advanced in support of the appeal, failing which the appeal or ground of appeal concerned will be declared inadmissible (see, inter alia, judgment of 20 September 2016, Ledra Advertising and Others v Commission and ECB, C‑8/15 P to C‑10/15 P, EU:C:2016:701, paragraph 35 and the case-law cited).
35


The requirements as to reasons stemming from those provisions are not satisfied by an appeal which, without even including an argument specifically identifying the error of law allegedly vitiating the judgment or order under appeal, simply repeats or reproduces the pleas in law and arguments already put forward before the General Court, including those based on facts expressly rejected by the General Court. Such an appeal amounts in reality to no more than a request for re-examination of the application submitted to the General Court, which the Court of Justice does not have jurisdiction to undertake (see, inter alia, judgment of 20 September 2016, Ledra Advertising and Others v Commission and ECB, C‑8/15 P to C‑10/15 P, EU:C:2016:701, paragraph 37 and the case-law cited).
36


Moreover, it must also be recalled that it is apparent from the second subparagraph of Article 256(1) TFEU and the first paragraph of Article 58 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union that appeals are limited to points of law. The General Court therefore has exclusive jurisdiction to find and appraise the relevant facts and to assess the evidence placed before it. The appraisal of those facts and the assessment of that evidence thus do not, save where the facts or evidence are distorted, constitute a point of law which is subject, as such, to review by the Court of Justice on appeal (see, inter alia, judgment of 15 June 2017, Spain v Commission, C‑279/16 P, not published, EU:C:2017:461, paragraph 36).
49


Accordingly, with respect to the examination, in the context of an appeal, of the General Court’s findings with regard to national law, the Court of Justice has jurisdiction only to determine whether that law was distorted (see judgments of 3 April 2014, France v Commission, C‑559/12 P, EU:C:2014:217, paragraph 79, and of 10 November 2016, DTS Distribuidora de Televisión Digital v Commission, C‑449/14 P, EU:C:2016:848, paragraph 44).
50


In that regard, it should be noted that a distortion must be obvious from the documents in the Court’s file without any need for a new assessment of the facts and the evidence (see judgments of 3 April 2014, France v Commission, C‑559/12 P, EU:C:2014:217, paragraph 80, and of 10 November 2016, DTS Distribuidora de Televisión Digital v Commission, C‑449/14 P, EU:C:2016:848, paragraph 45).
55


It is apparent from the case-law that it is the task of the Courts of the European Union to interpret the decisions of the Commission in the light of the reasons stated in those decisions and to do so, in some cases, regardless of the arguments developed by the Commission in the course of proceedings (see, to that effect, judgments of 19 July 2012, Alliance One International and Standard Commercial Tobacco v Commission, C‑628/10 P and C‑14/11 P, EU:C:2012:479, paragraphs 72 to 79; of 19 March 2013, Bouygues and Bouygues Télécom v Commission and Others and Commission v France and Others, C‑399/10 P and C‑401/10 P, EU:C:2013:175, paragraphs 126 to 129; and of 30 November 2016, Commission v France and Orange, C‑486/15 P, EU:C:2016:912, paragraphs 130 to 132).
61


In accordance with the Court’s settled case-law, if a request for substitution of grounds is to be admissible, the party concerned must have an interest in bringing proceedings, in the sense that the request must be capable, if successful, of procuring an advantage to the party making it. That may be the case where the request for substitution of grounds amounts to a defence to one of the applicant’s pleas (see judgments of 11 July 2013, Ziegler v Commission, C‑439/11 P, EU:C:2013:513, paragraph 42, and of 22 June 2016, DK Recycling und Roheisen v Commission, C‑540/14 P, EU:C:2016:469, paragraph 42).
63


Further, that request, which was made by the Commission in its reply to the present appeal, and which does not seek to have that appeal allowed or dismissed, in whole or in part, may not extend the subject matter of that appeal (see, by analogy, judgment of 10 November 2016, DTS Distribuidora de Televisión Digital v Commission, C‑449/14 P, EU:C:2016:848, paragraphs 100 and 101).