Commission of the European Communities v Portuguese Republic.
Date: 2006-07-13
24. That interpretation is confirmed by the object of the Directive, which is to establish harmonised legal protection in the Community for the rental and lending right and certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property (see Case C-200/96 Metronome Musik [1998] ECR I-1953, paragraph 22).
26. In that respect, the Court has already held that the commercial distribution of videocassettes takes the form of sales, but also of hiring-out. The right to prohibit such hiring-out in a Member State is liable to influence trade in videocassettes in that State and hence, indirectly, to affect intra-Community trade in those products (see Case 158/86 Warner Brothers and Others  [1988] ECR 2605, paragraph 10).
27. In addition, under the seventh recital in the preamble to the Directive, the protection of the exclusive rental rights of the producers of phonograms and films is justified on the grounds of the necessity to safeguard the recoupment of extremely high and risky investments which are required for their production and which are essential if authors are to go on creating new works (see, in particular, as regards specifically the producers of phonograms, Metronome Musik , paragraph 24).
28. It does not appear that the production of videograms requires such high and risky investments that they merit special protection. The Court has already recognised the extreme ease with which recordings could be copied (see Metronome Musik, paragraph 24). Although that statement was made in the context of sound recordings, the development of new technologies has also helped to facilitate the reproduction of picture recordings.
31. According to settled case-law, a Member State cannot plead provisions, practices or situations prevailing in its domestic legal order to justify failure to observe obligations and time-limits laid down by a directive (see, inter alia, Case C-114/02 Commission v France  [2003] ECR I-3783, paragraph 11, and Case C-358/03 Commission v Austria [2004] ECR I-12055, paragraph 13).
32. Finally, as an action for failure to fulfil obligations is objective in nature (see, inter alia, Case C-73/92 Commission v Spain [1993] ECR I-5997, paragraph 19), failure to comply with an obligation imposed by a rule of Community law is itself sufficient to constitute the breach, and the fact that such a failure had no adverse effects is irrelevant (see, inter alia, Case C-392/96 Commission v Ireland  [1999] ECR I‑5901, paragraphs 60 and 61, and Case C‑233/00 Commission v France [2003] ECR I-6625, paragraph 62). The argument of the Portuguese Republic that the alleged failure to fulfil obligations did not cause any concrete problem must therefore be rejected.
37. According to settled case-law, each Member State is bound to implement the provisions of directives in a manner that fully meets the requirements of clarity and certainty in legal situations imposed by the Community legislature, in the interests of the persons concerned established in the Member States.  To that end, the provisions of a directive must be implemented with unquestionable binding force and with the requisite specificity, precision and clarity (see Case C-207/96 Commission v Italy [1997] ECR I‑6869, paragraph 26).