Peter Jägerskiöld v Torolf Gustafsson.
Date: 1999-10-21
21 According to established case-law (see, in particular, Case C-415/93 Bosman [1995] ECR I-4921, paragraphs 59 to 61 and Case C-60/98 Butterfly Music [1999] ECR I-0000, paragraph 13), it is solely for the national court hearing the case, which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine, with regard to the particular aspects of the case, both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it refers to the Court.  The Court may refuse a request made by such a court only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of Community law sought bears no relation to the actual facts or purpose of the main proceedings or where the problem is hypothetical and the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted.
30 Before this question is answered, it must be reiterated that, in its judgment in Case 7/68 Commission v Italy, cited above, which is expressly referred to by the national court, the Court defined goods, for the purposes of Article 9 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 23 EC), which forms the first article of the third part of Title I of the EC Treaty, entitled `Free movement of goods', as products which can be valued in money and which are capable, as such, of forming the subject of commercial transactions.
34 As is clear from Council Directive 88/361/EEC of 24 June 1988 for the implementation of Article 67 of the Treaty (OJ 1988 L 178, p. 5), of which the nomenclature of movements of capital annexed to it remains valid even after the entry into force of Article 73b et seq. of the EC Treaty (now Article 56 EC et seq.) (see, to this effect, the judgment in Case C-222/97 Trummer and Mayer [1999] ECR I-1661, paragraph 21), the Treaty provisions on the free movement of capital cover, in particular, operations relating to shares, bonds and other securities which, like fishing rights or fishing permits, can be valued in money and may be the subject of market transactions.
36 The same applies to the grant of fishing rights and the issue of fishing permits.  The activity consisting of making fishing waters available to third parties, for consideration and upon certain conditions, so that they can fish there constitutes a provision of services which is covered by Article 59 et seq. of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 49 EC et seq.) if it has a cross-frontier character.  The fact that those rights or those permits are set down in documents which, as such, may be the subject of trade is not sufficient to bring them within the scope of the provisions of the Treaty relating to the free movement of goods.
38 First, as the Advocate General points out in paragraph 21 of his Opinion, although intellectual property rights may affect intra-Community trade in goods, they do not in themselves constitute such goods. Secondly, intellectual property rights may affect trade not only in goods but also in services (see, in particular, Joined Cases C-92/92 and C-326/92 Phil Collins and Others [1993] ECR I-5145, paragraph 22).
42 As regards the provisions of the Treaty relating to the freedom to provide services, it is sufficient to observe that these provisions are not applicable to activities which are confined in all respects within a single Member State (see, in particular, Case C-134/95 USSL No 47 di Biella [1997] ECR I-195, paragraph 19, and Case C-108/98 RI.SAN. [1999] ECR I-0000, paragraph 23).
43 It is clear from the case-file that the legal proceedings pending before the Tingsrätt are between two Finnish nationals, both established in Finland, concerning the right of one of them to fish in waters belonging to the other situated in Finland.
44 Such a situation does not present any link to one of the situations envisaged by Community law in the field of the free provision of services.
45 Consequently, the answer to be given to the seventh question must be that the provisions of the Treaty relating to the freedom to provide services are not applicable to a situation, such as that in the main proceedings, which is confined in all respects within a single Member State.