larimo/cjeu-paragraph-retrieval huggingface dataset:
Groupement des Producteurs, Importateurs et Agents Généraux d'Eaux Minérales Etrangères, VZW (Piageme) and others v Peeters NV.
Date: 1995-10-12
11 In its judgment of 18 June 1991 in Case C-369/89 Piageme and Others [1991] ECR I-2971, the Court ruled that Articles 30 of the EEC Treaty and 14 of Directive 79/112 precluded a national law from requiring the exclusive use of a specific language for the labelling of foodstuffs, without allowing for the possibility of using another language easily understood by purchasers or of ensuring that the purchaser was informed by other measures.
17 In the Piageme judgment, cited above, the Court held (at paragraph 16) that, on the one hand, imposing a stricter obligation than the use of a language easily understood, that is to say, for example, the exclusive use of the language of a linguistic region and, on the other hand, failing to acknowledge the possibility of ensuring that the purchaser is informed by other measures, go beyond the requirements of the Directive.
23 The aim of Article 14 is to ensure that the consumer is given easy access to the compulsory particulars specified in the Directive.
26 It follows that consumer protection is not ensured by measures other than labelling such as, for example, information supplied at the sales point or as part of wide-ranging advertising campaigns.
27 All the compulsory particulars specified in the Directive must appear on the labelling in a language easily understood by purchasers or by means of other measures such as designs, symbols or pictograms.
28 It is for the national court to determine in each individual case whether what appears on the labelling is such as to give consumers full information as to the compulsory particulars specified in the Directive.
Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of Spain.
Date: 1995-10-12
6 It has, furthermore, consistently been held that mere administrative practices, which by their nature are alterable at will by the administration and are not given the appropriate publicity, cannot be regarded as constituting the proper fulfilment of a Member State' s obligations under Article 189 of the Treaty (see Case C-381/92 Commission v Ireland [1994] ECR I-215, paragraph 7).
Eckhard Kalanke v Freie Hansestadt Bremen.
Date: 1995-10-17
16 A national rule that, where men and women who are candidates for the same promotion are equally qualified, women are automatically to be given priority in sectors where they are under-represented, involves discrimination on grounds of sex.
18 That provision is specifically and exclusively designed to allow measures which, although discriminatory in appearance, are in fact intended to eliminate or reduce actual instances of inequality which may exist in the reality of social life (see Case 312/86 Commission v France [1988] ECR 6315, paragraph 15).
19 It thus permits national measures relating to access to employment, including promotion, which give a specific advantage to women with a view to improving their ability to compete on the labour market and to pursue a career on an equal footing with men.
20 As the Council considered in the third recital in the preamble to Recommendation 84/635/EEC of 13 December 1984 on the promotion of positive action for women (OJ 1984 L 331, p. 34), "existing legal provisions on equal treatment, which are designed to afford rights to individuals, are inadequate for the elimination of all existing inequalities unless parallel action is taken by governments, both sides of industry and other bodies concerned, to counteract the prejudicial effects on women in employment which arise from social attitudes, behaviour and structures".
21 Nevertheless, as a derogation from an individual right laid down in the Directive, Article 2(4) must be interpreted strictly (see Case 222/84 Johnston v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary [1986] ECR 1651, paragraph 36).
22 National rules which guarantee women absolute and unconditional priority for appointment or promotion go beyond promoting equal opportunities and overstep the limits of the exception in Article 2(4) of the Directive.
Ministre des Finances v Société Pardo & Fils and Camicas SARL.
Date: 1995-10-17
10 It is settled case-law that, in the interests of legal certainty and ease of verification, the decisive criterion for the classification of goods for customs purposes is in general to be sought in their objective characteristics and properties, as defined in the relevant headings of the Common Customs Tariff and the notes to the sections or chapters. Likewise, for the purpose of interpreting the Common Customs Tariff, the Court has consistently held that both the notes which head the chapters of the Common Customs Tariff and the Explanatory Notes to the Nomenclature of the Customs Cooperation Council are important means for ensuring the uniform application of the Tariff and as such may be regarded as useful aids to its interpretation (see the judgment in Case C-395/93 Neckermann Versand v Hauptzollamt Frankfurt am Main-Ost [1994] ECR I-4027, paragraph 5).
E. Olivieri-Coenen v Bestuur van de Nieuwe Algemene Bedrijfsvereniging.
Date: 1995-10-17
16 In paragraph 20 of its judgment in Case C-12/93 Drake [1994] ECR I-4337 the Court stated that there is no hierarchy between the provisions of the Regulation, on the one hand, and those of Annex VI (formerly Annex V), on the other, since all those provisions were adopted pursuant to Article 51 of the Treaty and must therefore be interpreted together in the light of the purpose of that article, which is to contribute to freedom of movement for migrant workers, a principle which is one of the foundations of the Community.
Rendo NV, Centraal Overijsselse Nutsbedrijven NV and Regionaal Energiebedrijf Salland NV v Commission of the European Communities.
Date: 1995-10-19
13 The Court may of its own motion raise the objection that a party has no interest in bringing or in maintaining an appeal on the ground that an event subsequent to the judgment of the Court of First Instance removes the prejudicial effect thereof as regards the appellant, and declare the appeal inadmissible or devoid of purpose for that reason. For an applicant to have an interest in bringing proceedings the appeal must be likely, if successful, to procure an advantage to the party bringing it.
26 In that connection, it should be noted that the classification of an act for legal purposes by the Court of First Instance, in particular a finding that the act has no legal effect, is a question of law which may be raised in an appeal.
27 In order to determine the merits of this ground of appeal, it should be borne in mind that the Court of Justice has had occasion to hold that, even if the Commission is not obliged to adopt a decision establishing the existence of an infringement of the rules on competition or to investigate a complaint brought before it under Regulation No 17, it is none the less required to examine closely the matters of fact and of law raised by the complainant in order to ascertain whether there has been any anti-competitive conduct. Moreover, where an investigation is terminated without any action being taken, the Commission is required to state reasons for its decision in order to enable the Court of First Instance to verify whether the Commission committed any errors of fact or of law or is guilty of a misuse of powers.
28 In those circumstances, an institution empowered to find that there has been an infringement and to impose a sanction in respect of it and to which private persons may make complaint, as is the case with the Commission in the field of competition, necessarily adopts a measure producing legal effects when it terminates, wholly or in part, an investigation initiated upon a complaint by such a person (see the judgment in Case C-39/93 P SFEI and Others v Commission [1994] ECR I-2681, paragraph 27, and the case-law cited).
Job Centre Coop. ARL.
Date: 1995-10-19
9 Whilst that provision does not make reference to the Court subject to the proceedings during which the national court frames a question for a preliminary ruling being inter partes (see, most recently, Case C-18/93 Corsica Ferries Italia v Corpo dei Piloti del Porto di Genova [1994] ECR I-1783, paragraph 12), it is none the less apparent from Article 177 that a national court may refer a question to the Court only if there is a case pending before it and if it is called upon to give judgment in proceedings intended to lead to a decision of a judicial nature (Case 138/80 Borker [1980] ECR 1975, paragraph 4, and Case 318/85 Greis Unterweger [1986] ECR 955, paragraph 4).
10 That is not the case in the present instance.
11 When, in accordance with the applicable national legislation and under the "giurisdizione volontaria" procedure, the national court rules on an application for confirmation of a company' s articles of association with a view to its registration, it is performing a non-judicial function which, in other Member States, is entrusted to administrative authorities. It is exercising administrative authority without being at the same time called upon to settle any dispute. Only if the person empowered under national law to apply for such confirmation seeks judicial review of a decision rejecting that application ° and thus of the application for registration ° may the court seised be regarded as exercising a judicial function, for the purposes of Article 177, in respect of an application for the annulment of a measure adversely affecting the petitioner (see Case 32/74 Haaga [1974] ECR 1201).
Hans Hönig v Stadt Stockach.
Date: 1995-10-19
9 As the Court has emphasized in its decisions, it is necessary in interpreting a provision of Community law to consider not only its wording but also the context in which it occurs and the objects of the rules of which it is part (judgment in Case 292/82 Merck v Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Jonas [1983] ECR 3781, paragraph 12, and in Case 337/82 St Nikolaus Brennerei v Hauptzollamt Krefeld [1984] ECR 1051, paragraph 10).
Bundeskartellamt v Volkswagen AG and VAG Leasing GmbH.
Date: 1995-10-24
17 It is settled case-law, established by the judgments in Case 56/65 Société Technique Minière v Maschinenbau Ulm [1966] ECR 235 and in Joined Cases 56/64 and 58/64 Consten and Grundig v Commission [1966] ECR 299, that agreements between traders at different levels in the economic process, also known as "vertical agreements", may constitute agreements within the meaning of Article 85(1) of the Treaty and be prohibited by it.
19 That argument must be rejected. Representatives can lose their character as independent traders only if they do not bear any of the risks resulting from the contracts negotiated on behalf of the principal and they operate as auxiliary organs forming an integral part of the principal' s undertaking (see Joined Cases 40/73 to 48/73, 50/73, 54 to 56/73, 111/73, 113/73 and 114/73 Suiker Unie and Others v Commission [1975] ECR 1663, paragraph 539). However, the German VAG dealers assume, at least in part, the financial risks linked to the transactions concluded on behalf of VAG Leasing, in so far as they repurchase the vehicles from it upon the expiry of the leasing contracts. Furthermore, their principal business of sales and after-sales services is carried on, largely independently, in their own name and for their own account.
26 Finally, as regards their effect on trade between Member States, it is sufficient to note that the exclusive agency contracts bind all the German VAG dealers. As the Court has held on several occasions, practices restricting competition which extend over the whole territory of a Member State by their very nature have the effect of reinforcing the compartmentalization of markets on a national basis, thereby obstructing the economic interpenetration which the Treaty is intended to bring about (see Case 42/84 Remia and Others v Commission [1985] ECR 2545, paragraph 22). German VAG dealers are in fact unable to act either as intermediaries for leasing companies established in other Member States or to conclude leasing contracts for their own account with consumers established in other Member States.
R. Moscato v Bestuur van de Nieuwe Algemene Bedrijfsvereniging.
Date: 1995-10-26
27 First of all, it should be noted that Article 51 of the Treaty entrusts the Council with the task of adopting such measures in the field of social security as are necessary to provide freedom of movement for workers. The provisions of Regulation No 1408/71 must therefore be interpreted in the light of that objective (see, in particular, Case C-406/93 Reichling v INAMI [1994] ECR I-4061, paragraph 21).
28 The rule on the aggregation of insurance, residence or employment periods, laid down by Article 51(a) of the Treaty and as implemented, in particular, by Article 38(1) of Regulation No 1408/71 in relation to invalidity insurance, constitutes one of the basic principles governing Community coordination of social security schemes in the Member States, its purpose being to ensure that exercise of the right, conferred by the Treaty, to freedom of movement does not have the effect of depriving a worker of social security advantages to which he would have been entitled if he had spent his working life in only one Member State. Such a consequence might in practice discourage Community workers from exercising their right to freedom of movement and would therefore constitute an obstacle to that freedom (see, in particular, the judgment in Case C-165/91 Van Munster v Rijksdienst voor Pensionen [1994] ECR I-4661, paragraph 27).
S. E. Klaus v Bestuur van de Nieuwe Algemene Bedrijfsvereniging.
Date: 1995-10-26
21 Article 51 of the Treaty entrusted the Council with the task of adopting such measures in the field of social security as are necessary to provide freedom of movement for workers. The provisions of Regulation No 1408/71 must therefore be interpreted in the light of that objective (see, in particular, the judgment in Case C-406/93 Reichling v INAMI [1994] ECR I-4061, paragraph 21).
Commission of the European Communities v Federal Republic of Germany.
Date: 1995-10-26
29 According to settled case-law, in the absence of harmonization of legislation, measures of equivalent effect prohibited by Article 30 of the Treaty include obstacles to the free movement of goods where they are the consequence of applying rules that lay down requirements to be met by such goods (such as requirements as to designation, form, size, weight, composition, presentation, labelling and packaging) to goods from other Member States where they are lawfully manufactured and marketed, even if those rules apply without distinction to all products, unless their application can be justified by a public interest objective taking precedence over the free movement of goods (see Joined Cases C-267/91 and C-268/91 Keck and Mithouard [1993] ECR I-6097, paragraph 15).
31 It should be noted in that connection that, in the absence of Community harmonization ° as in the present case ° national measures which are necessary in order to ensure that products are accurately described are compatible with Article 30 et seq. of the Treaty, provided that they avoid any confusion on the part of consumers and ensure fair trading (see, in particular, Case 216/84 Commission v France [1988] ECR 793, paragraph 11).
34 As the Advocate General rightly observed at point 39 of his Opinion, consumers whose purchasing decisions depend on the composition of the products in question will first read the list of ingredients, the display of which is required by Article 6 of the Directive. Even though consumers may sometimes be misled, that risk remains minimal and cannot therefore justify the hindrance to the free movement of goods created by the requirements at issue.
Furlanis Costruzioni Generali SpA v Azienda Nazionale Autonoma Strade (ANAS).
Date: 1995-10-26
12 In that regard the Court has consistently held that it is for the national courts alone, before which the proceedings are pending and which must assume responsibility for the judgment to be given, to determine, having regard to the particular features of each case, both the need for a preliminary ruling to enable them to give judgment and the relevance of the questions which they refer to the Court. A request for a preliminary ruling from a national court may be rejected only if it is quite obvious that the interpretation of Community law sought by that court bears no relation to the actual nature of the case or the subject-matter of the main action (see, most recently, the judgment in Case C-62/93 Supergas [1995] ECR I-0000, paragraph 10). But that is not the case here.
17 According to the wording of the provision in question, until the end of 1992 the contracting authority may "reject" tenders which are abnormally low in relation to the transaction. Consequently, the terms of the provision relate to the decision by which the contracting authority rules definitively on the tenders submitted to it and not merely to the measure by which the award procedure was initiated.
20 The Court held in Case 199/85 Commission v Italy [1987] ECR 1039, paragraph 14, that provisions which authorized derogations from the rules of the directive intended to ensure the effectiveness of the rights conferred by the Treaty in the field of public works contracts must be interpreted strictly. This holds good also as regards the provision at issue, which introduces temporary, derogating arrangements constituting an exception to the procedure normally laid down by the Community rules.
Ufficio IVA di Trapani v Italittica SpA.
Date: 1995-10-26
15 Article 6(4) of the Second Council Directive of 11 April 1967 on the harmonization of legislation of Member States concerning turnover taxes ° Structure and procedures for application of a common system of value-added tax (OJ, English Special Edition 1967, p. 16) and the Commission' s proposal for the Sixth Directive (Supplement 11/73 to the Bulletin of the European Communities, p. 13) provide for only rare exceptions to the rule that the tax is chargeable at the moment when the service is provided. As the Advocate General points out in point 22 of his Opinion, the fact that the Community legislature substantially extended the scope of the permitted derogations suggests that it intended to allow the Member States a wide margin of discretion. At the hearing, the French Government submitted that the Council had adopted the third subparagraph of Article 10(2) so that certain Member States, such as Italy and France, could retain their legislation which provided that the tax on services was chargeable on payment.
22 Where a Member State opts for the derogation provided for in the first indent in the third subparagraph of Article 10(2) of the Directive, namely where it makes the tax chargeable no later than the issue of the invoice or the document serving as invoice, it may, in accordance with the third indent, provide that the tax becomes chargeable "where an invoice or document serving as invoice is not issued, or is issued late, within a specified period from the date of the chargeable event".
23 As the Commission has correctly submitted, that there is no such possibility where a Member State opts for the derogation laid down in the second indent is probably due to the fact that the Community legislature considered that a trader' s interest in receiving consideration for the service carried out was a sufficient incentive to ensure prompt payment for the service.
Atlanta Fruchthandelsgesellschaft mbH and others v Bundesamt für Ernährung und Forstwirtschaft.
Date: 1995-11-09
16 As regards the criticism by the national court of the lack of reasons for the rate of import duty adopted, the Court has consistently held that the statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the Treaty must be appropriate to the nature of the measure in question. The reasoning of the institution which adopted the measure must be stated clearly and unequivocally, so as to inform persons concerned of the justification for the measure adopted and to enable the Court to exercise its powers of review. It also follows from that case-law that the statement of reasons for a measure is not required to detail every relevant point of fact and law, as the question whether the statement of reasons satisfies the requirements of Article 190 of the Treaty must be considered with reference not only to its wording but also to its context and the whole body of legal rules governing the matter in question. Consequently, if the contested measure clearly discloses the essential objective pursued by the institution, it would be excessive to require a specific statement of reasons for each of the technical choices made by the institution (see inter alia the judgments in Case 250/84 Eridania Zuccherifici Nazionali v Cassa Conguaglio Zucchero [1986] ECR 117, paragraphs 37 and 38, and, most recently, Case C-478/93 Netherlands v Commission [1995] ECR I-0000, paragraphs 48 and 49).
Andrea Francovich v Italian Republic.
Date: 1995-11-09
17 In paragraph 14 of its judgment in Francovich and Others, cited above, the Court found that in order to determine whether a person should be regarded as intended to benefit under the Directive, a national court must verify whether the person concerned is an employed person under national law and whether he is excluded from the scope of the Directive in accordance with Article 1(2) and the Annex, and then ascertain whether a state of insolvency as provided for in Article 2 of the Directive exists.
18 It is clear from the terms of Article 2 that in order for an employer to be deemed to be in a state of insolvency, it is necessary, first, that the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member State concerned provide for proceedings involving the employer' s assets to satisfy collectively the claims of creditors; secondly, that employees' claims resulting from contracts of employment or employment relationships may be taken into consideration in such proceedings; thirdly, that a request has been made for the proceedings to be opened; and, fourthly, that the authority competent under the said national provisions has either decided to open the proceedings or established that the employer' s undertaking or business has been definitively closed down and that the available assets are insufficient to warrant the opening of the proceedings.
23 The Court has consistently held that the principle of equal treatment requires that similar situations should not be treated differently and that different situations should not be treated identically unless such differentiation is objectively justified (see Case C-306/93 SMW Winzersekt v Land Rheinland-Pfalz [1994] ECR I-5555, paragraph 30).
Criminal proceedings against Thierry Tranchant and Téléphone Store SARL, as a party liable at civil law.
Date: 1995-11-09
18 Furthermore, in the judgment in Case C-202/88 France v Commission [1991] ECR I-1223, paragraph 51, the Court held that a system of undistorted competition, as laid down in the Treaty, can be guaranteed only if equality of opportunity is secured as between the various economic operators. The Court concluded from this (in paragraph 52) that maintaining effective competition and securing transparency required the drawing-up of technical specifications, monitoring their application and granting type-approval to be carried out by a body independent of public or private undertakings offering competing goods and/or services in the telecommunications sector (see also the judgment in Case C-18/88 GB-Inno-BM [1991] ECR I-5941, paragraph 26).