flightright GmbH v Air Nostrum, Líneas Aéreas del Mediterráneo SA, Roland Becker v Hainan Airlines Co. Ltd and Mohamed Barkan and Others v Air Nostrum, Líneas Aéreas del Mediterráneo SA.
Date: 2018-03-07
46


In that regard, it should be recalled that, according to the Court’s settled case-law, where the questions submitted concern the interpretation of EU law, the Court is in principle required to give a ruling. It follows that questions relating to EU law enjoy a presumption of relevance. The Court may refuse to give a ruling on a question referred by a national court only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of EU law that is sought bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose, where the problem is hypothetical, or where the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to enable it to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it (judgment of 27 June 2017, Congregación de Escuelas Pías Provincia Betania, C‑74/16, EU:C:2017:496, paragraphs 24 and 25).
54


For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that it is settled case-law that, in accordance with the principle of effectiveness, rules under national law cannot make it impossible or excessively difficult to exercise the rights conferred by EU law (see, to that effect, judgment of 8 June 2017, Vinyls Italia, C‑54/16, EU:C:2017:433, paragraph 26 and the case-law cited), such as those resulting from Regulation No 261/2004.
57


As a preliminary remark, it is necessary to point out that, although the referring court in Case C‑274/16 does not raise any issues in that regard, the answer to the first question in Case C‑448/16 is relevant also to Case C‑274/16 in so far as it follows from the order for reference in that case that, in the circumstances of this case, the operating air carrier is not the contracting partner of the passengers concerned either. It should be added, in that regard, that Case C‑274/16 falls, ratione temporis, within the scope of Regulation No 1215/2012, Article 7(1) of which is worded in terms almost identical to those of Article 5(1) of Regulation No 44/2001, the Court’s interpretation of which maintains the entire scope of that first provision (see, to that effect, judgment of 9 March 2017, Pula Parking, C‑551/15, EU:C:2017:193, paragraph 31 and the case-law cited).
58


It is apparent from the Court’s case-law that the concept of ‘matters relating to a contract’ must be interpreted independently in order to ensure that it is applied uniformly in all the Member States (see, to that effect, judgments of 17 June 1992, Handte, C‑26/91, EU:C:1992:268, paragraph 10, and of 28 January 2015, Kolassa, C‑375/13, EU:C:2015:37, paragraph 37).
59


In that regard, the Court has also held that in the case where non-performance of a contract is relied upon to support a claimant’s action, all obligations arising under that contract must be considered to come within the concept of matters relating to a contract (judgment of 15 June 2017, Kareda, C‑249/16, EU:C:2017:472, paragraph 30 and the case-law cited).
60


The Court has also stated that, even if the application of the rule of special jurisdiction for matters relating to a contract does not require the conclusion of a contract between two persons, it nevertheless presupposes the existence of a legal obligation freely consented to by one person in respect of another and on which the claimant’s action is based (see, to that effect, judgments of5 February 2004, Frahuil, C‑265/02, EU:C:2004:77, paragraphs 24 to 26; of 20 January 2005, Engler, C‑27/02, EU:C:2005:33, paragraphs 50 and 51; and of 28 January 2015, Kolassa, C‑375/13, EU:C:2015:37, paragraph 39).
61


It follows, as the Advocate General stated in point 54 of his Opinion, that the rule of special jurisdiction in matters relating to a contract provided for in Article 5(1)(a) of Regulation No 44/2001 and in Article 7(1)(a) of Regulation No 1215/2012 is based on the cause of action, not the identity of the parties (see, to that effect, judgment of 15 June 2017, Kareda, C‑249/16, EU:C:2017:472, paragraphs 31 and 33).
67


In that regard, the Court has held, regarding the second indent of Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation No 44/2001, that, where there are several places at which services are provided in different Member States, the place of performance must, in principle, be understood as the place with the closest linking factor between the contract and the court having jurisdiction, which, as a general rule, will be at the place of the main provision of services (see, to that effect, judgments of 9 July 2009, Rehder, C‑204/08, EU:C:2009:439, paragraphs 35 to 38, and of 11 March 2010, Wood Floor Solutions Andreas Domberger, C‑19/09, EU:C:2010:137, paragraph 33). That place must be deduced, as far as possible, from the provisions of the contract itself (judgment of 11 March 2010, Wood Floor Solutions Andreas Domberger, C‑19/09, EU:C:2010:137, paragraph 38).
68


Therefore, the Court has held, in respect of that provision, in relation to a direct flight operated by the contracting partner of the passenger concerned, that the place of departure and the place of arrival of the aircraft must be considered, likewise, as the places of main provision of the services under a contract for carriage by air, justifying conferring jurisdiction for a claim for compensation founded on that carriage contract and on Regulation No 261/2004 — at the applicant’s choice — on the court in whose territorial jurisdiction the place of departure or the place of arrival of the aircraft are situated, as those places are agreed in that contract (judgment of 9 July 2009, Rehder, C‑204/08, EU:C:2009:439, paragraphs 43 and 47).
74


Given that that place has a sufficiently close link with the material elements of the dispute and, therefore, ensures the close connection required by the rules of special jurisdiction set out in Article 5(1) of Regulation No 44/2001 and Article 7(1) of Regulation No 1215/2012 between the contract for carriage by air and the court with jurisdiction, it satisfies the objective of proximity (see, to that effect, judgment of 9 July 2009, Rehder, C‑204/08, EU:C:2009:439, paragraph 44).
75


That solution also fulfils the principle of predictability pursued by those rules in so far as it allows both the applicant and the defendant to identify the court for the place of arrival of the second flight, as it is set out in that contract for carriage by air, as the court before which actions may be brought (see, to that effect, judgments of 9 July 2009, Rehder, C‑204/08, EU:C:2009:439, paragraph 45, and of 4 September 2014, Nickel & Goeldner Spedition, C‑157/13, EU:C:2014:2145, paragraph 41).