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45. It none the less appears, subject to verification by the national court, that, in the sector concerned, a limit of 12 on the number of concessions and, therefore, of gaming establishments, which, according to information provided by the Austrian Government, represents one establishment for 750 000 inhabitants, of its very nature makes it possible to limit opportunities for gambling and thus to attain an objective in the public interest recognised by European Union law (see, to that effect, Gambelli and Others , paragraphs 62 and 67; Placanica and Others , paragraph 53; and Carmen Media Group , paragraph 84). Since consumers must travel to the premises of an establishment in order to be able to take part in the games of chance in question, the consequence of a limitation on the number of such establishments is to reinforce the barriers to taking part in such games.

71. Such legislation amounts to excluding the right to deduct VAT where the prerequisites for the existence of that right are not satisfied.

56. The Court has already held in similar circumstances that if the pre‑litigation procedure has attained its objective of protecting the rights of the Member State in question, that Member State, which did not inform the Commission during the pre-litigation procedure that the directive should be regarded as having already been implemented in its domestic law, cannot complain that the Commission has extended or altered the subject-matter of the action as defined by the pre-litigation procedure. According to the Court, the Commission may, after alleging that a Member State has failed to transpose a directive at all, specify in its reply that the implementation pleaded for the first time by the Member State concerned in its defence is in any event incorrect or incomplete so far as certain provisions of the directive are concerned, as such a complaint is necessarily included in the complaint alleging a complete failure to transpose and is subsidiary to that complaint (Case C‑456/03 Commission v Italy [2005] ECR I‑5335, paragraphs 23 to 42, and, in particular, paragraph 40).

56 Regulation 11(4) provides that an employer who fails to consult employee representatives at the time of the transfer of an undertaking may be ordered to pay appropriate compensation to employees affected by the transfer. Under Regulation 11(11), the amount of compensation may not exceed a maximum amount which was increased from two weeks' pay for the employee in question to four weeks' pay by the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act 1993. However, according to Regulation 11(7), where an employer also dismisses employees on grounds of redundancy and fails to consult employee representatives, contrary to section 99 of the EPA, any compensation may be set off against a "protective award" which the employer may later be ordered to make to the employee under the EPA and, conversely, a "protective award" may be set off against any compensation which the employer may subsequently be ordered to pay to the employee.

25. It should be borne in mind in that regard that, in its judgment in X Holding (C‑337/08, EU:C:2010:89, paragraphs 18 and 43), the Court, having recalled that a tax integration scheme allows, in particular, for the profits and losses of the companies constituting the tax entity to be consolidated at the level of the parent company and for the transactions carried out within the group to remain neutral for tax purposes, held that the Treaty provisions on the freedom of establishment do not preclude legislation of a Member State which makes it possible for a parent company to form a single tax entity with its resident subsidiary, but which prevents the formation of such a single tax entity with a non-resident subsidiary, in that the profits of that non-resident subsidiary are not subject to the fiscal legislation of that Member State.

47 In other areas, the Court has accepted that a system of strict criminal liability penalising breach of a Community regulation is not in itself incompatible with Community law (Hansen, paragraph 19; Case C-177/95 Ebony Maritime and Loten Navigation [1997] ECR I-1111, paragraph 36).

44 So far as concerns the allegedly incomprehensible nature of the orders in Article 2 of the decision at issue on the ground that there had been no transfer of resources, it should be recalled that the Court has consistently held that the concept of aid embraces not only positive benefits, such as subsidies, but also measures which, in various forms, mitigate the charges which are normally included in the budget of an undertaking and which, therefore, without being subsidies in the strict sense of the word, are similar in character and have the same effect (see, to that effect, Case C-387/92 Banco Exterior de España [1994] ECR I-877, paragraph 13, and Case C-6/97 Italy v Commission [1999] ECR I-2981, paragraph 16).

161. Le législateur communautaire ayant estimé utile de mentionner dans cette dernière disposition une précision supplémentaire et, ainsi, de limiter davantage la marge de manœuvre des pouvoirs adjudicateurs en ce qui concerne le rejet d’une offre anormalement basse, le législateur national a l’obligation d’assurer une transposition de ce point.

75. As regards Article 95 EC, the Court has held that the principle of subsidiarity applies where the Community legislature uses it as a legal basis, inasmuch as that provision does not give it exclusive competence to regulate economic activity on the internal market ( British American Tobacco (Investments) and Imperial Tobacco , paragraph 179).

101. In the present case, it is common ground that, under national law, a developer cannot commence works in implementation of his project until he has obtained reserved matters approval. Until such approval has been granted, the development in question is still not (entirely) authorised.

65 That interpretation is also confirmed by settled case-law of the Court (see Kziber, cited above, paragraphs 15 to 23, confirmed by Case C-58/93 Yousfi [1994] ECR I-1353, paragraphs 16 to 19; Case C-103/94 Krid [1995] ECR I-719, paragraphs 21 to 24; Case C-126/95 Hallouzi-Choho v Bestuur van de Sociale Verzekeringsbank [1996] ECR I-4807, paragraphs 19 and 20; and Case C-113/97 Babahenini [1998] ECR I-183, paragraphs 17 and 18) relating to the principle of equal treatment contained in Article 39(1) of the Cooperation Agreement between the European Economic Community and the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, signed in Algiers on 26 April 1976 and concluded on behalf of the Community by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2210/78 of 26 September 1978 (OJ 1978 L 263, p. 1) and to Article 41(1) of the Cooperation Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Morocco, signed in Rabat on 26 April 1976 and concluded on behalf of the Community by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2211/78 (OJ 1978 L 264, p. 1).

91. Thus, and contrary to the submissions of the Belgian, Italian and Polish Governments, according to which the Member States lack the instruments necessary to assess compliance with fundamental rights by the Member State responsible and, therefore, the risks to which the asylum seeker would be exposed were he to be transferred to that Member State, information such as that cited by the European Court of Human Rights enables the Member States to assess the functioning of the asylum system in the Member State responsible, making it possible to evaluate those risks.

27. In order to answer this question, it must first be recalled that the system of protection established by Directive 93/13 is based on the idea that the consumer is in a weak position vis-à-vis the trader as regards both his bargaining power and his level of knowledge, which leads to the consumer agreeing to terms drawn up in advance by the trader without being able to influence the content of those terms (Case C‑168/05 Mostaza Claro [2006] ECR I‑10421, paragraph 25; Case C‑243/08 Pannon GSM [2009] ECR I‑4713, paragraph 22; and Case C‑40/08 Asturcom Telecomunicaciones [2009] ECR I‑9579, paragraph 29).

26. In that regard, the Court takes the view that given the circumstances in the present case, it is not necessary to rule on the objections as to admissibility raised by the Commission, since the form of order sought by the French Republic must in any event be dismissed on the substance. Substance

74. In that regard, the Court has stated that the significant distortions of competition to which treatment as non-taxable persons of bodies governed by public law acting as public authorities would lead must be evaluated by reference to the activity in question, as such, without such evaluation relating to any local market in particular, and by reference not only to actual competition, but also to potential competition, provided that the possibility of a private operator entering the relevant market is real, and not purely hypothetical (judgment in Commission v Netherlands , C‑79/09, EU:C:2010:171, paragraph 91).

32. In those circumstances, it is for the Commission to establish that, notwithstanding the fact that the contract in question relates to services coming within the scope of Annex I B to Directive 92/50, that contract was of certain interest to an undertaking located in a different Member State to that of the relevant contracting authority, and that that undertaking was unable to express its interest in that contract because it did not have access to adequate information before the contract was awarded.

35. However, the Court has also held that the objective pursued by Regulation No 469/2009 is not to compensate the holder fully for the delay to the marketing of his invention or to compensate for such delay in connection with the marketing of that invention in all its possible commercial forms, including in the form of combinations based on the same active ingredient (see, to that effect, judgment in Actavis Group PTC and Actavis UK , EU:C:2013:833, paragraph 40).

12 It is clear from Royal Decree No 22/1956 that levies are payable to the Lawyers' Welfare Fund in the amounts of 1% of the capital of partnerships and private limited liability companies on the publication of the statutes of those companies at the Polimeles Protodikio Athinon (Court of First Instance, Athens) (Greece) and two thirds of the stamp duty (0.5% of the capital) on publication of the acts extending the period of existence of those companies. Pre-litigation procedure

40. Accordingly, even though Article 52(1) TFEU allows Member States to justify, on any of the grounds listed in that provision, national measures constituting a restriction on the freedom of establishment, that does not prevent the EU legislature, when adopting secondary legislation, such as Directive 2006/213, giving effect to a fundamental freedom enshrined in the FEU Treaty, from restricting certain derogations, especially when, as in the present case, the relevant provision of secondary law merely reiterates settled case-law to the effect that a requirement such as that at issue in the main proceedings is incompatible with the fundamental freedoms on which economic operators can rely (see, to that effect, inter alia, judgment in Commission v France , C‑334/94, EU:C:1996:90, paragraph 19).

39. Furthermore, as regards such priority, it must be pointed out, as the Court stated in paragraphs 38 and 39 of the judgment in Commission v Germany , that the reference to ‘technical, economic and organisational constraints’ in Article 3(1) of the Directive forms part of a provision giving general expression to the obligation imposed on Member States and that the Community legislature did not thereby intend to provide limited exceptions to a rule having general application, but to define the scope and content of a positive obligation to give priority to the processing of waste oils by regeneration.

8 In deciding on this action it should be recalled that according to the case-law of the Court (see Case 247/84 Motte [1985] ECR 3887, at paragraph 25; Case 304/84 Muller [1986] ECR 1511, at paragraph 26; and Case C-42/90 Bellon [1990] ECR I-4863, at paragraphs 16 and 17), rules making the use of an additive subject to authorization are in compliance with Community law if two conditions are satisfied.

33 First, it is common ground that a provision such as that at issue in the main proceedings does not amount to an ‘other requirement’ within the meaning of Article 1(4) of Directive 98/34, taking account of the general nature of the requirements which it sets out (see, to that effect, judgment of 9 June 2011, Intercommunale Intermosane and Fédération de l’industrie et du gaz, C‑361/10, EU:C:2011:382, paragraph 21). On the other hand, it does not contain any prohibitions which could bring it within the category of the prohibitions set out in Article 1(11) of that directive.

22. In that connection, the Court has already held that, according to Article 11(2) of Directive 2002/46, in the absence of specific European Union rules laid down in that directive, national rules may be applied without prejudice to the provisions of the Treaty (see Case C-319/05 Commission v Germany [2007] ECR I-9811, paragraph 84).

52. By limiting the possibility for other shareholders to participate in the company with a view to establishing or maintaining lasting and direct economic links with it which would make possible effective participation in the management of that company or in its control, this situation is liable to deter direct investors from other Member States.

23 Furthermore, as the Court held at paragraph 19 of the judgment in Empire Stores, that value, in order to be subjective, must be the value which the recipient of the supply of services attributes to the services which he seeks to obtain and correspond to the amount which he is prepared to spend to that end.

24 It is apparent from those considerations that, like the procedure for an arrangement with creditors examined in the judgment of 7 April 2013, Degano Trasporti (C‑546/14, EU:C:2016:206, paragraph 28), the bankruptcy discharge procedure at issue in the main proceedings is subject to strict conditions for its application offering guarantees so far as concerns, inter alia, the recovery of VAT claims and that, having regard to those conditions, it does not constitute a general and indiscriminate waiver of collecting VAT and is not contrary to the obligation on Member States to ensure collection of all of the VAT due on their territory as well as the effective collection of the European Union’s own resources (see judgment of 7 April 2016, Degano Trasporti, C‑546/14, EU:C:2016:206, paragraph 28).

25 Accordingly, point 8 of Article 4 of Directive 65/65/EEC, as amended by Council Directive 87/21/EEC of 22 December 1986 (OJ 1987 L 15, p. 36), establishes an `abridged' procedure which, subject to certain conditions, relieves the manufacturers of medicinal products which are essentially similar to medicinal products already authorised from having to provide the results of pharmacological and toxicological tests and of clinical trials, thus saving the time and expense necessary to assemble such data, and avoiding the repetition of tests on humans or animals where these are not absolutely necessary (see Case C-368/96 Generics (UK) and Others [1998] ECR I-7967, paragraphs 2 to 4).

48. Therefore, before the adoption of that regulation, in the absence of provisions of EU law, disputes concerning the recovery of amounts wrongly paid under EU law had to be decided by national courts in application of their own domestic law, subject nevertheless to the limits imposed by EU law, on the basis that the rules and procedures laid down by domestic law were not permitted to have the effect of making it in practice impossible or excessively difficult to recover the aid not due and that domestic law had to be applied in a manner which was not discriminatory as compared to procedures for deciding similar national disputes (see judgment in Josef Vosding Schlacht-, Kühl- und Zerlegebetrieb and Others , EU:C:2009:38, paragraph 26).

25. In that regard, the conformity of the quality of bathing water to the limit values set by the Directive must be assessed each year and not over a number of years, as the Danish Government has argued. Article 13 of the Directive, as amended by Directive 91/692, requires the Member States to send to the Commission each year a report on the implementation of the Directive for the current year. It is not consonant with the objective of public-health protection pursued by the Directive for there to be a period of several years during which the Member States are free not to take any action. That interpretation is confirmed by paragraph 34 of the judgment in Case C-198/97 Commission v Germany [1999] ECR I-3257, where the Court held that deviations even in a single season constitute an infringement of the Directive.

74. En effet, en ce qui concerne, en particulier, la force probante dont jouit un acte notarié, il convient de préciser que celle-ci relève du régime des preuves consacré par la loi dans l’ordre juridique en cause. Ainsi, l’article 157 du code de procédure civile, lequel détermine la force probante de l’acte authentique, fait partie du chapitre IX, intitulé «De la preuve», du titre II du livre I dudit code. La force probante conférée par la loi à un acte donné n’a donc pas d’incidence directe sur la question de savoir si l’activité comportant l’établissement de cet acte, prise en elle-même, constitue une participation directe et spécifique à l’exercice de l’autorité publique, ainsi que l’exige la jurisprudence (arrêts précités Thijssen, point 8, et du 24 mai 2011, Commission/Belgique, point 100; Commission/France, point 91; Commission/Luxembourg, point 101; Commission/Autriche, point 100; Commission/Allemagne, point 102, ai nsi que Commission/Grèce, point 93).

67 First, having regard to the objective of promoting competition, set out in Article 8(2) of the Framework Directive and to the requirements of the principle of proportionality, the sum required for eligibility for the allocation of radio frequencies must be set at an appropriate level to reflect, in particular, the value of the use of those radio frequencies, which requires account to be taken of the economic and technical situation and the competitiveness of the market in question (see, by analogy, judgments of 10 March 2011, Telefónica Móviles España, C‑85/10, EU:C:2011:141, paragraphs 27 and 28, and of 21 March 2013, Belgacom and Others, C‑375/11, EU:C:2013:185, paragraphs 50 and 51).

52 In that judgment, the Court ruled that Directive 2008/115 precludes legislation of a Member State laying down criminal penalties for illegal stays, in so far as that legislation permits the imprisonment of a third-country national who, though staying illegally on the territory of that Member State and not being willing to leave that territory voluntarily, has not been subject to the coercive measures referred to in Article 8 of the directive and has not, if placed in detention with a view to the preparation and carrying out of his removal, yet reached the end of the maximum term of that detention (judgment of 6 December 2011 in Achughbabian, C‑329/11, EU:C:2011:807, paragraph 50).

41 In accordance with the Court’s case-law, the concept of ‘unlawful removal from customs supervision’, appearing in Article 203(1) of the Customs Code, must be understood as encompassing any act or omission the result of which is to prevent, if only for a short time, the competent customs authority from gaining access to goods under customs supervision and from monitoring them as provided for in Article 37(1) of the Customs Code (see judgments of 1 February 2001, D. Wandel, C‑66/99, EU:C:2001:69, paragraph 47, and of 12 June 2014, SEK Zollagentur, C‑75/13, EU:C:2014:1759, paragraph 28 and the case-law cited).

86. So far as concerns the principle of equivalence, this requires that all the rules applicable to actions apply without distinction to actions based on infringement of European Union law and those based on infringement of national law (see, inter alia, Case C-591/10 Littlewoods Retail and Others [2012] ECR, paragraph 31, and Case C-249/11 Byankov [2012] ECR, paragraph 70). It is therefore for the national court to determine whether national law allows procedural flaws of a comparable internal nature to be rectified during the administrative procedure at second instance.

52 It should, moreover, be recalled that the interpretation of the fundamental freedoms provided for in Article 49, 56 or 63 TFEU may prove to be relevant in a case confined in all respects within a single Member State where national law requires the referring court to grant the same rights to a national of its own Member State as those which a national of another Member State in the same situation would derive from EU law (see, to that effect, judgments of 5 December 2000, Guimont, C‑448/98,EU:C:2000:663, paragraph 23; of 21 June 2012, Susisalo and Others, C‑84/11, EU:C:2012:374, paragraph 20; and of 21 February 2013, Ordine degli Ingegneri di Verona e Provincia and Others, C‑111/12, EU:C:2013:100, paragraph 35).

40 That requirement means, in any event, that wine transported in bulk within the region retains entitlement to the denominación de origen calificada when it is bottled in authorised cellars.

52. The freedom to pursue a trade or business has been recognised by the Court (see, in particular, Case C-44/94 Fishermen’s Organisations and Others [1995] ECR I‑3115, paragraph 55) but, as pointed out by the Commission in its written observations, the national court has not stated that this freedom would be infringed separately from any infringement of the principles of proportionality and non-discrimination, which is examined below. It must therefore be held that this aspect of the question likewise does not require separate examination. Infringement of the principles of non‑discrimination and proportionality

25 In those circumstances, even if they have their own characteristics, such benefits must be regarded as `sickness benefits' within the meaning of Article 4(1)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71.

55. The as-efficient-competitor test has been specifically applied by the Court to low-pricing practices in the form of selective prices or predatory prices (see, in respect of selective prices, judgment in Post Danmark , C‑209/10, EU:C:2012:172, paragraphs 28 to 35, and in respect of predatory prices, judgments in AKZO v Commission , C‑62/86, EU:C:1991:286, paragraphs 70 to 73, and France Télécom v Commission , C‑202/07 P, EU:C:2009:214, paragraphs 107 and 108), and margin squeeze (judgment in TeliaSonera Sverige , C‑52/09, EU:C:2011:83, paragraphs 40 to 46).

27. Furthermore, it follows from settled case-law that customs authorities enjoy broad discretion in amending or conducting post-clearance examinations inter alia with a view to achieving those objectives (see, to that effect, judgments in Südzucker and Others , C‑608/10, C‑10/11 and C‑23/11, EU:C:2012:444, paragraphs 48 and 50, and also Digitalnet and Others , C‑320/11, C‑330/11, C‑382/11 and C‑383/11, EU:C:2012:745, paragraph 66).

23. Such a provision also has a restrictive effect as regards companies established in other Member States, in that it constitutes an obstacle to their raising capital in Finland. Since revenue from capital of non-Finnish origin receives less favourable tax treatment than dividends distributed by companies established in Finland, the shares of companies established in other Member States are less attractive to investors residing in Finland than shares in companies which have their seat in that Member State (Case C-35/98 Verkooijen [2000] ECR I-4071, paragraph 35; Case C-334/02 Commission v France [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 24).

20 It is true that the Court has previously held that the interpretation of provisions of an act of the Union in situations outside that act’s scope is justified where those provisions have been made applicable to such situations by national law directly and unconditionally in order to ensure that internal situations and situations governed by EU law are treated in the same way (judgment in Generali-Providencia Biztosító, C‑470/13, EU:C:2014:2469, paragraph 23 and the case-law cited).

28. In order to determine whether a judicial decision constitutes a decision finally disposing of the case against a person, within the meaning of that article, it is necessary to be satisfied that that decision was given after a determination had been made as to the merits of the case (see, to that effect, Case C‑469/03 Miraglia EU:C:2005:156, paragraph 30).

28. However, by permitting the deduction of losses incurred by a permanent establishment situated in Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany granted a tax advantage to the resident company to which that permanent establishment belonged, in the same way as if that permanent establishment had been situated in Germany, and, therefore, equated it with a resident permanent establishment so far as concerns the deduction of losses (see, to that effect, judgments in Krankenheim Ruhesitz am Wannsee-Seniorenheimstatt , C‑157/07, EU:C:2008:588, paragraph 35, and Nordea Bank Danmark , C‑48/13, EU:C:2014:2087, paragraph 24). In those circumstances, the situation of a resident company with a permanent establishment situated in Austria is accordingly comparable to that of a resident company with a permanent establishment situated in Germany.

41. In that system, Article 34 of Regulation No 44/2001, which sets out the grounds on which the recognition of a judgment may be opposed, must be interpreted strictly, inasmuch as it constitutes an obstacle to the attainment of one of the fundamental objectives of that regulation. With regard, more specifically, to the public-policy clause in Article 34(1) of the regulation, it may be relied on only in exceptional cases (see judgment in Apostolides , C‑420/07, EU:C:2009:271, paragraph 55 and the case-law cited).

14 Moreover, the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations may be invoked as against Community rules, only to the extent that the Community itself has previously created a situation which can give rise to a legitimate expectation.

31. In the same way, taking into account the subject-matter of the dispute in the main proceedings, the non-reduction clause laid down in Clause 8(3) of the Framework Agreement is also not relevant in the present case. As is clear from the case-law of the Court, in order for an alleged reduction to be caught by the prohibition laid down by that clause, it must, first, be connected to the ‘implementation’ of the Framework Agreement and, second, relate to the ‘general level of protection’ afforded to fixed-term workers (Joined Cases C‑378/07 to C‑380/07 Angelidaki and Others [2009] ECR I‑3071, paragraph 126, and, to that effect, Case C‑144/04 Mangold [2005] ECR I‑9981, paragraph 52).

50. S’agissant, en premier lieu, de la répartition équilibrée du pouvoir d’imposition entre les États membres, invoquée par tous les gouvernements ayant présenté des observations ainsi que par la Commission, il y a lieu de rappeler qu’il s’agit d’un objectif légitime reconnu par la Cour (voir, notamment, arrêts du 29 novembre 2011, National Grid Indus, C‑371/10, Rec. p. I‑12273, point 45, et du 6 septembre 2012, Philips Electronics UK, C‑18/11, point 23) qui peut rendre nécessaire l’application, aux activités économiques des contribuables établis dans l’un desdits États membres, des seules règles fiscales de celui-ci, pour ce qui est tant des bénéfices que des pertes (voir, en ce sens, arrêts précités Marks & Spencer, point 45; Oy AA, point 54, ainsi que Lidl Belgium, point 31).

32. That interpretation is not called into question by paragraph 21 of the judgment in Case C‑397/07 Commission v Spain , in which the Court merely defined the scope of the complaints which had been raised by the European Commission in the case giving rise to that judgment by specifying the transactions which were, as from 1 January 1986 (the date of the Kingdom of Spain’s accession to the European Communities), mandatorily exempted from capital duty.

23. Consequently, the role attributed to the national court by European Union law in this area is not limited to a mere power to rule on the possible unfairness of a contractual term, but also consists of the obligation to examine that issue of its own motion, where it has available to it the legal and factual elements necessary for that task (see, inter alia, Case C-243/08 Pannon GSM [2009] ECR I-4713, paragraph 32, and Banco Español de Crédito , paragraph 43).

43. In this respect, it may be recalled that, on being asked whether a body whose objects were to carry on and facilitate any activity concerned with the organisation of trade fairs, exhibitions and conferences could be regarded as a body governed by public law within the meaning of Article 1(b) of Directive 92/50, the Court held that activities relating to the organisation of such events meet needs in the general interest, in that an organiser of those events, in bringing together manufacturers and traders in one geographical location, is not acting solely in the individual interest of those manufacturers and traders, who are thereby afforded an opportunity to promote their goods and merchandise, but is also providing consumers who attend the events with information that enables them to make choices in optimum conditions. The resulting stimulus to trade may be considered to fall within the general interest (see Agorà and Excelsior , paragraphs 33 and 34).

30 According to settled case-law, the review of legality provided for in Article 263 TFEU entails the EU judicature conducting a review, in respect of both the law and the facts, of the contested decision in the light of the arguments relied on by the applicant, which means that it has the power to assess the evidence, annul the decision and alter the amount of the fine (see judgment of 10 July 2014, Telefónica and Telefónica de España v Commission , C‑295/12 P, EU:C:2014:2062, paragraph 53 and the case-law cited).

15 In this connection it should be recalled that, according to the Court' s case-law (see inter alia the judgments in Case 240/84 Toyo v Council [1987] ECR 1809, at paragraph 13, Case 255/84 Nachi Fujikoshi v Council [1987] ECR 1861, at paragraph 14, Case 258/84 Nippon Seiko v Council [1987] ECR 1923, at paragraph 14, and Case 260/84 Minebea v Council [1987] ECR 1975, at paragraph 8), determination of the normal value and determination of the export price are governed by separate rules and therefore selling, administrative and other general expenses need not necessarily be treated in the same way in both cases.

13 IT MUST BE STATED IN THE FIRST PLACE THAT THE PROCEDURE FOR CALCULATING THE NORMAL VALUE IS LAID DOWN IN ARTICLE 2*(3 ) TO ( 7 ) OF REGULATION NO 3017/79, AND THE PROCEDURE FOR CALCULATING THE EXPORT PRICE IS LAID DOWN IN ARTICLE 2*(8 ) THEREOF . THOSE PROVISIONS SEPARATELY SPECIFY SEVERAL DIFFERENT METHODS FOR CALCULATING EACH OF THE TERMS OF THE COMPARISON .

22. As regards the question whether national legislation falls within the scope of one or other of the freedoms of movement, it is clear from what is now well established case-law that the purpose of the legislation concerned must be taken into consideration (see, to that effect, Case C‑196/04 Cadbury Schweppes and Cadbury Schweppes Overseas [2006] ECR I‑7995, paragraphs 31 to 33; Case C‑452/04 Fidium Finanz [2006] ECR I‑9521, paragraphs 34 and 44 to 49; Case C‑374/04 Test Claimants in Class IV of the ACT Group Litigation [2006] ECR I‑0000, paragraphs 37 and 38; Case C‑446/04 Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation [2006] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 36; and Case C‑524/04 Test Claimants in the Thin Cap Group Litigation [2007 ] ECR I‑0000, paragraphs 26 to 34).

29. In the first place, in the case of the legislation in force prior to the amendments made in 1998, the relevant provisions of ICTA applied to loans granted by a non-resident company to a resident subsidiary of which the former company owned 75% of the capital or where each of the companies was a 75% subsidiary of a third company.

26. It must moreover be emphasised that the issue raised in the case in the main proceedings does not appear to be a situation in which all the components are wholly confined to one Member State. Indeed, it has been established that the marble tax is imposed on all marble from Carrara that crosses that municipality’s territorial boundaries, no distinction being made between marble the final destination of which is in Italy and marble destined for other Member States. By its nature and terms, the marble tax therefore impinges on trade between Member States (see Lancry and Others , paragraph 30; see, to the same effect, with regard to measures having effect equivalent to a quantitative restriction, Case 286/81 Oosthoek’s Uitgeversmaatchaapij [1982] ECR 4575, paragraph 9; Joined Cases C-277/91, C-318/91 and C-319/91 Ligur Carni and Others [1993] ECR I-6621, paragraphs 36 and 37; Case C-254/98 TK-Heimdienst [2000] ECR I-151, paragraphs 27 to 31; and Case C-448/98 Guimont [2000] ECR I-10663, paragraphs 21 to 23).

44. Such rights and benefits include all those relating to employment conditions, such as the right of a full-time worker on part-time parental leave to a period of notice in the event of the employer’s unilateral termination of a contract of indefinite duration, the length of which depends on the worker’s length of service in the company and the aim of which is to facilitate the search for a new job.

24 However, for advantages to be capable of being categorised as aid within the meaning of Article 87(1) EC, they must, first, be granted directly or indirectly through State resources (see Joined Cases C-72/91 and C-73/91 Sloman Neptun v Bodo Ziesemer [1993] ECR I-887, paragraph 19; Case C-189/91 Kirsammer-Hack v Sidal [1993] ECR I-6185, paragraph 16; Joined Cases C-52/97 to C-54/97 Viscido and Others v Ente Poste Italiane [1998] ECR I-2629, paragraph 13; Case C-200/97 Ecotrade v Altiformi e Ferriere di Servola [1998] ECR I-7907, paragraph 35; Case C-295/97 Piaggio v International Factors Italia (Ifitalia), Dornier Luftfahrt, Ministero della Difesa [1999] ECR I-3735, paragraph 35; and Case C-379/98 PreussenElektra v Schleswag [2001] ECR I-2099, paragraph 58) and, second, be imputable to the State (Van der Kooy, paragraph 35; Case C-303/88 Italy v Commission [1991] ECR I-1433, paragraph 11; Case C-305/89 Italy v Commission, cited above, paragraph 13). The first part of the first plea in law Arguments of the parties

39. Second, the exclusive right of a Community trade mark proprietor, conferred under Regulation No 40/94, extends, as a rule, to the entire area of the European Union, throughout which Community trade marks enjoy uniform protection and have effect.

85. The Court has already held that budgetary considerations cannot justify discrimination against one of the sexes. To concede that such considerations may justify a difference in treatment between men and women which would otherwise constitute indirect discrimination on grounds of sex would mean that the application and scope of a rule of Community law as fundamental as that of equal treatment between men and women might vary in time and place according to the state of the public finances of Member States (Roks , paragraphs 35 and 36; Case C-226/98 Jørgensen [2000] ECR I-2447, paragraph 39; and Kutz-Bauer , paragraphs 59 and 60).

42. The clientele of a hotel forms such a new public. The transmission of the broadcast work to that clientele using television sets is not just a technical means to ensure or improve reception of the original broadcast in the catchment area. On the contrary, the hotel is the organisation which intervenes, in full knowledge of the consequences of its action, to give access to the protected work to its customers. In the absence of that intervention, its customers, although physically within that area, would not, in principle, be able to enjoy the broadcast work.

12. It must be recalled that Article 81 EC, which applies, according to its wording, to agreements ‘between undertakings’, does not, in principle, apply to contracts for concessions concluded between municipalities acting in their capacity as public authorities and concessionaires entrusted with responsibility for a public service (see, to that effect, Case 30/87 Bodson [1988] ECR 2479, paragraph 18).

33. Moreover, in order to achieve that purpose, a concerted effort is required by all Community producers in equal measure (see Case 179/84 Bozzetti [1985] ECR 2301, paragraph 32, and Spain v Council , paragraph 29). The mechanism of the common agricultural market is predicated on the assumption that, where domestic demand for milk exceeds supply, the Member States can import milk, especially from Member States where demand is lower than supply. Furthermore, the claimants in the main proceedings argued at the hearing that the total reference quantity for the Community is not exceeded, which implies that overall demand for milk in the Community does not exceed supply.

109. En ce qui concerne, enfin, la responsabilité de l’employeur, il ressort de la jurisprudence de la Cour que le fait que la Communauté autonome puisse être tenue pour responsable des comportements des registradores-liquidadores lorsqu’ils agissent en tant que délégués de l’autorité publique ne suffit pas à établir l’existence de liens de subordination (voir arrêt Ayuntamiento de Sevilla, précité, point 14).

18. As is apparent both from the tenth recital in the preamble to Directive 89/104 and the seventh recital in the preamble to Regulation No 40/94, the assessment of the likelihood of confusion depends on numerous elements and, in particular, on the recognition of the trade mark on the market, on the association which can be made with the used or registered sign and on the degree of similarity between the trade mark and the sign and between the goods or services identified. The likelihood of confusion must therefore be appreciated globally, taking into account all factors relevant to the circumstances of the case (see to that effect, regarding Directive 89/104, SABEL , paragraph 22).

39 It is therefore necessary to consider, in turn, whether the requirements imposed by national rules such as those at issue in the main proceedings have a restrictive effect on freedom to provide services, and, if so, whether, in the sector under consideration, such restrictions on freedom to provide services are justified by overriding reasons relating to the public interest. If they are, it is necessary, in addition, to establish whether that interest is already protected by the rules of the Member State in which the service provider is established and whether the same result can be achieved by less restrictive rules (see, in particular, Säger, paragraph 15, Kraus, cited above, paragraph 32, Gebhard, cited above, paragraph 37, Guiot, cited above, paragraph 13, and Reisebüro Broede, cited above, paragraph 28).

40. Since the Directive had already entered into force at the time of the facts in the main proceedings, the interpretation sought by the Rechtbank van koophandel te Antwerpen, which relates to crucial provisions of the Directive, must be regarded as being useful to that court for the purpose of enabling it to rule in the case before it in compliance with that obligation to refrain.

41 It should be borne in mind at the outset that, in Parliament v Council, cited above, the Court, after deciding that, in order to avoid discontinuity in the programme for the harmonisation of transport taxation and in view of important considerations of legal certainty, it was necessary for all the effects of the annulled directive to be preserved provisionally until the adoption of a new directive (paragraphs 31 and 32), added that the Community legislature was under a duty to put an end within a reasonable period to the infringement it had committed (paragraph 33).

32 In the particular circumstances of this case, all the effects of the annulled directive should be preserved provisionally until the Council has adopted a new directive.

40 In the context of the judicial cooperation between national courts and the Court of Justice in connection with references for a preliminary ruling, it is for the national court to establish and evaluate the facts of the case (see, inter alia, Case 139/85 Kempf v Staatssecretaris van Justitie [1986] ECR 1741, paragraph 12) and for the Court of Justice to provide the national court with such interpretative information as may be necessary to enable it to decide the dispute (Case C-332/88 Alimenta v Doux [1990] ECR I-2077, paragraph 9).

155. In those circumstances, it follows that the broad discretion granted by Regulation No 2887/2000 to the NRAs as regards the assessment of pricing aspects of unbundled access to the local loop also concerns the evaluation of the costs incurred by the notified operator.

46. It should be borne in mind in that regard that Article 5(1) of Directive 2001/83 is a specific derogating provision, which must be interpreted strictly, applicable in exceptional cases where it is appropriate to meet special medical needs, in circumstances in which a doctor, following an actual examination of his patients and on the basis of purely therapeutic considerations, prescribes a medicinal product which does not have a valid marketing authorisation in the European Union and for which there is no authorised equivalent on the national market or which is unavailable on that market (see, to that effect, Case C‑185/10 Commission v Poland [2012] ECR I‑0000, paragraphs 35, 36 and 48). The Court pointed out in particular, in paragraph 37 of that judgment, that Article 5(1) cannot be relied on where medicinal products having the same active substances, the same dosage and the same form as those which the doctor providing treatment considers that he must prescribe to treat his patients are already authorised and available on the national market.

56. It is true that, in certain circumstances, such as the loss of products, their sale at a loss or unlawful sale at a price different from the retail price indicated on the tax stamps, the manufacturer may be obliged to pay an amount of VAT which is higher than that which would have resulted from the application of the ordinary Community system for levying VAT.

55. It is settled case-law in that connection that, in an action under Article 226 EC, the letter of formal notice sent by the Commission to a Member State and the reasoned opinion issued by the Commission delimit the subject-matter of the dispute, so that it cannot thereafter be extended. The opportunity for the Member State concerned to submit its observations, even if it chooses not to avail itself thereof, constitutes an essential guarantee intended by the Treaty, adherence to which is an essential formal requirement of the procedure for finding that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations. Consequently, the reasoned opinion and the proceedings brought by the Commission must be based on the same complaints as those set out in the letter of formal notice initiating the pre-litigation procedure (see, in particular, Case C-422/05 Commission v Belgium [2007] ECR I-4749, paragraph 25, and Case C‑186/06 Commission v Spain [2007] ECR I-12093, paragraph 15).

19 It is also necessary to consider whether network cards are to be classified in the Combined Nomenclature under heading No 8471 as units of automatic data-processing machines or under heading No 8473 as parts or accessories of machines of that type.

64. Second, as the finding of a failure by a Member State to fulfil its obligations is not bound up with a finding as to the damage flowing therefrom (Case C‑263//96 Commission v Belgium [1997] ECR I‑7453, paragraph 30), Ireland cannot rely on the fact that no tenderer suffered damage, arguing that, even if the initial weighting of the award criteria had been used, the contract at issue would not have been awarded to a contractor other than the one who was chosen at the conclusion of the procedure.

106. Admittedly the Court emphasised, in paragraph 46 of the judgment in Sweden and Turco v Council (EU:C:2008:374), that the considerations, whereby it is for the Council to balance the particular interest to be protected by non-disclosure of the document concerned against, inter alia, the public interest in the document being made accessible in the light of the advantages stemming, as noted in recital 2 in the preamble to Regulation No 1049/2001, from increased openness, in that this enables citizens to participate more closely in the decision-making process and guarantees that the administration enjoys greater legitimacy and is more effective and more accountable to the citizen in a democratic system, are of particular relevance where the Council is acting in its legislative capacity.

Par conséquent, le septième moyen soulevé par la requérante constitue, en réalité, un moyen nouveau ayant pour objet de soumettre à la Cour un litige plus étendu que celui dont a eu à connaître le Tribunal et qui est, dès lors, irrecevable (voir, en ce sens, arrêt du 1er juin 1994, Commission/Brazzelli Lualdi e.a., C‑136/92 P, EU:C:1994:211, points 57 et 59).

35 Consequently, it must be held that, by precluding by regulation or administrative practice on the grounds of their nationality employed or self-employed workers from other Member States and the members of their families from being attributed large-family status for the purpose of the award of special benefits for such families and from being awarded family allowances, the Hellenic Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 48 and 52 of the EC Treaty, Article 7 of Regulation No 1612/68, Article 7 of Regulation No 1251/70, Article 7 of Directive 75/34 and Article 3 of Regulation No 1408/71.

53 In that respect it follows from the judgments in Case 174/83 Amman v Council [1986] ECR 2647, paras 19 and 20, in Case 175/83 Culmsee v ESC [1986] ECR 2667, paras 19 and 20, in Case 176/83 Allo v Commission [1986] ECR 2687, paras 19 and 20, in Case 233/83 Agostini v Commission [1986] ECR 2709, paras 19 and 20, in Case 247/83 Ambrosetti v Commission [1986] ECR 2729, paras 12 and 20 and in Case 264/83 Delhez v Commission [1986] ECR 2749, paras 20 and 21 that an obligation to pay default interest can arise only where the amount of the principal sum owed is certain or can at least be ascertained on the basis of established objective factors. The same judgments stated that the powers conferred on the Council by Article 65 of the Staff Regulations for adjusting the remuneration and pensions of officials and other servants and for fixing the weightings applicable to such remuneration and pensions involve the exercise of a discretion. No certainty exists as to the amount by which the remuneration and pensions will be adjusted or the manner in which the weightings will be fixed until the Council has exercised those powers and adopted the regulation.

55. It follows that, as the amount of the tax-free allowance does not depend on the amount of the taxable value but is granted to the heir in his capacity as a taxable person, the fact that the non-resident heir of a non-resident deceased has limited tax liability does not, for the purposes of that allowance, make the situation of that heir objectively different from that of the non‑resident heir of a resident deceased or from that of the resident heir of a resident or non‑resident deceased.

20 That principle is also applicable, subject to certain conditions, where the breach at issue stems from a decision of a court adjudicating at last instance. In the light of the essential role played by the judiciary in the protection of the rights derived by individuals from rules of EU law and of the fact that a court ruling at last instance constitutes, by definition, the last instance before which those individuals can enforce the rights conferred on them by those rules, the Court considers that the full effectiveness of those rules would be called in question and the protection of those rights would be weakened if individuals were precluded from being able, under certain conditions, to obtain reparation when their rights are affected by a breach of EU law attributable to a decision of a court of a Member State adjudicating at last instance (see, to that effect, judgments of 30 September 2003 in Köbler, C‑224/01,EU:C:2003:513, paragraphs 32 to 36 and 59; of 13 June 2006 in Traghetti del Mediterraneo, C‑173/03, EU:C:2006:391, paragraph 31, and of 9 September 2015 in Ferreira da Silva e Brito and Others, C‑160/14, EU:C:2015:565, paragraph 47).

39 The insurance scheme is financed by contributions the rate of which is not systematically proportionate to the risk insured. For example, it is clear from the case-file that the rate may not exceed a maximum ceiling, even where the activity carried out entails a high risk, the balance of financing being born by all the undertakings in the same category as regards the risk run. Furthermore, contributions are calculated not only on the basis of the risk linked to the activity of the undertaking concerned but also according to the insured persons' earnings.

42. The Court has consistently held that, although Community law does not preclude Member States from applying their legislation or collective labour agreements entered into by both sides of industry to any person who is employed, even temporarily, no matter in which Member State the employer is established, nevertheless such a possibility is subject to the condition that the workers concerned, who are temporarily working in the host Member State, do not already enjoy the same protection, or essentially comparable protection by virtue of obligations to which their employer is already subject in the Member State in which it is established (see, to that effect, Case C-445/03 Commission v Luxembourg [2004] ECR I‑10191, paragraph 29 and the case-law cited).

3 The said Decision 89/659 found that the aid was unlawful as having been granted in breach of Article 93(2) of the Treaty, and also incompatible with the common market within the meaning of Article 92(1) of the Treaty, and ordered the special single tax scheme to be modified without delay (Article 1). The Commission similarly required recovery of the aid from the recipient undertakings, in the form of payment of the part of the tax which had not been levied (Article 2), and required the provision of information on the measures taken to comply with the decision and a report on the amount of the aid and the undertakings concerned by repayments (Article 3).

38. The national court asks, however, whether the justifications set out in paragraphs 44 to 50 of the judgment in Marks & Spencer , which also include the need to prevent the risk of tax avoidance, must be understood as being cumulative or whether the existence of only one of those factors is sufficient for the tax regime at issue in the main proceedings to be treated, in principle, as being justified.

39. For the sake of completeness, it must be noted that, as recitals 3, 21 and 24 in the preamble to Regulation No 1782/2003 make clear, environmental protection forms part of the objectives of the single payment scheme. The Court has also held that environmental protection, one of the essential objectives of the European Union, must be regarded as forming part of the common agricultural policy (Case C-428/07 Horvath [2009] ECR I-6355, paragraph 29). Moreover, Article 2 point (1) of Regulation No 796/2004 expressly provides that arable land, and consequently agricultural areas pursuant to Article 2(a) of Regulation No 795/2004, is land maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation No 1782/2003.

13 As a preliminary point, as regards the provisions of the Treaty applicable to the case in the main proceedings, it is important to note that a national of the Union, such as Mr U, working for an institution or body thereof in a Member State other than his Member State of origin falls within the scope of Article 45 TFEU (see, to that effect, judgments of 3 October 2000, Ferlini, C‑411/98, EU:C:2000:530, paragraph 42; of 16 December 2004, My, C‑293/03, EU:C:2004:821, paragraph 47; and of 6 October 2016, Adrien and Others, C‑466/15, EU:C:2016:749, paragraphs 24 and 25).

45. It should be recalled that the duration of the infringement must be assessed by reference to the time when the Court assesses the facts, not the time at which the case is brought before it by the Commission (see, to that effect, Case C‑177/04 Commission v France , paragraph 71).

90. It follows that the clause on the ownership and control of airlines is contrary to Article 52 of the Treaty (see, to that effect, Commission v Denmark , paragraphs 122 to 124 and 128 to 133; Commission v Sweden , paragraphs 113 to 115 and 119 to 124; Commission v Finland , paragraphs 118 to 120 and 124 to 129; Commission v Belgium , paragraphs 131 to 133 and 137 to 142; Commission v Luxembourg , paragraphs 122 to 124 and 128 to 133; Commission v Austria , paragraphs 130 to 134 and 138 to 143, and Commission v Germany , paragraphs 144 to 146 and 150 to 156).

59. However, that discretion notwithstanding, the criteria which the Member States lay down must be applied in a transparent manner and must be open to review in order to prevent any unfavourable treatment of fixed-term workers solely on the basis of the duration of the contracts or employment relationships which attest to their length of service and professional experience (see Rosado Santana , paragraph 77).

8. À cet égard, il suffit de rappeler que, selon une jurisprudence constante, l’existence d’un manquement doit être appréciée en fonction de la situation de l’État membre telle qu’elle se présentait au terme du délai fixé dans l’avis motivé et que les changements intervenus par la suite ne sauraient être pris en compte par la Cour (voir, notamment, arrêts du 14 juillet 2005, Commission/Allemagne, C‑433/03, Rec. p. I‑6985, point 32, et du 8 novembre 2007, Commission/Luxembourg, C‑224/07, non publié au Recueil, point 12).

43. Accordingly, the Austrian legislation must be regarded as having existed on 31 December 1993 for the purposes of Article 57(1) EC.

84. Since those regulations do not contain a provision expressly giving one regulation primacy over the other, it is necessary to ensure that each of the regulations is applied in a manner which is compatible with the other and enables them to be applied consistently (see, by analogy, Case C‑28/08 P Commission v Bavarian Lager [2010] ECR I‑6055, paragraph 56; Commission v Éditions Odile Jacob , paragraph 110; and Commission v Agrofert Holding , paragraph 52).

55. En premier lieu, en ce qui concerne la gravité de l’infraction, il convient de rappeler que la directive 91/271 vise à protéger l’environnement (voir arrêt Commission/Belgique, C‑533/11, EU:C:2013:659, point 55). L’absence ou l’insuffisance de systèmes de collecte ou de traitement des eaux urbaines résiduaires sont susceptibles de porter atteinte à l’environnement et doivent être considérées comme particulièrement graves (voir, par analogie, arrêt Commission/Grèce, C‑378/13, EU:C:2014:2405, point 54). S’agissant de la circonstance invoquée par la République hellénique, selon laquelle les eaux usées des agglomérations de Koropi, de Nea Makri, de Rafina et d’Artemida seraient acheminées et traitées dans des stations d’épuration voisines, si elle est susceptible, en principe, de constituer une circonstance atténuante, elle ne saurait, en l’occurrence, être prise en compte dès lors qu’elle est contestée par la Commission et que la République hellénique n’a apporté aucun élément de preuve à l’appui de son allégation.

62 In any event, it must be pointed out that the obligation of the national court to ensure the full effectiveness of EU law does not always result in the annulment of a contested decision, where the latter was adopted in infringement of the rights of the defence. According to settled case-law, an infringement of the rights of the defence, in particular the right to be heard, results in the annulment of the decision taken at the end of the administrative procedure at issue only if, had it not been for such an irregularity, the outcome of the procedure might have been different (judgments of 10 September 2013, G. and R., C‑383/13 PPU, EU:C:2013:533, paragraph 38, and of 3 July 2014, Kamino International Logistics and Datema Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, C‑129/13 and C‑130/13, EU:C:2014:2041, paragraphs 78 and 79).

37. In those circumstances, Article 2 of the Directive must be interpreted as meaning that sounds may constitute a trade mark, on condition that they may also be represented graphically, a question to be dealt with when the Court considers the second question.

86. However, it is necessary to consider whether such measures, which are permitted under national legislation, exceed the limits of what is appropriate and necessary in order to attain the objectives legitimately pursued by the legislation in question; when there is a choice between several appropriate measures, recourse must be had to the least onerous, and the disadvantages caused must not be disproportionate to the aims pursued (see, to that effect, Case C‑534/06 Industria Lavorazione Carni Ovine [2008] ECR I‑4129, paragraph 25, and Case C‑170/08 Nijemeisland [2009] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 41).

25. As to whether the recipient’s failure to comply with such an obligation entitles the competent authority to refuse altogether to pay the financial assistance, it is to be noted that the principle of proportionality, which is a general principle of Community law and has been affirmed on numerous occasions in the case-law of the Court of Justice, in particular with regard to the common agricultural policy, must be observed as such both by the Community legislature and by the national legislatures and courts which apply Community law. That principle requires that measures adopted by Community institutions should not exceed the limits of what is appropriate and necessary in order to attain the objectives legitimately pursued by the legislation in question; when there is a choice between several appropriate measures, recourse must be had to the least onerous, and the disadvantages caused must not be disproportionate to the aims pursued (see Joined Cases C‑37/06 and C‑58/06 Viamex Agrar Handel and ZVK [2008] ECR I-0000, paragraphs 33 and 35, and the case-law cited therein).

108. When the Commission has adduced sufficient evidence to show that the authorities of the defendant Member State have developed a repeated and persistent practice which is contrary to European Union law, it is incumbent on that Member State to challenge in substance and in detail the information produced and the consequences flowing therefrom (see Case C‑494/01 Commission v Ireland [2005] ECR I‑3331, paragraph 47, and Case C‑248/05 Commission v Ireland , paragraph 69).

43. Accordingly, the Austrian legislation must be regarded as having existed on 31 December 1993 for the purposes of Article 57(1) EC.

64. However, although Article 26(1) of Directive 93/36 leaves it to the contracting authority to choose the criteria on which it intends to base its award of the contract, that choice may relate only to criteria aimed at identifying the offer which is the most economically advantageous (see to this effect Beentjes , paragraph 19, SIAC Construction , paragraph 36, and Concordia Bus Finland , paragraph 59).

8 After a complaint brought before the Finanzamt (Tax Office) and an appeal to the Finanzgericht (Finance Court) were dismissed, FG-Linien appealed on a point of law to the Bundesfinanzhof.

25. The fact that, formally, a body itself fixes the amount of contributions which provide for the greater part of its financing does not make it impossible that indirect financing could satisfy that criterion. That is the case when bodies such as statutory sickness insurance funds are financed by contributions paid by or for their members without specific consideration, when membership of such a fund and the payment of those contributions are required by law, and when the amount of those contributions, although formally fixed by the funds themselves, is, on the one hand, laid down by statute, the law determining the services provided by those funds and the associated expenses and prohibiting them from operating on a profit-making basis, and must, on the other, be authorised by the supervisory authority, and when contributions are compulsorily recovered on the basis of the provisions of public law (see, to that effect, Hans & Christophorus Oymanns , paragraphs 53 to 56).

72. Or, selon une jurisprudence constante de la Cour, les griefs dirigés contre des motifs surabondants d’une décision du Tribunal ne sauraient entraîner l’annulation de cette décision et sont donc inopérants (arrêt Dansk Rørindustri e.a./Commission, C‑189/02 P, C‑202/02 P, C‑205/02 P à C‑208/02 P et C‑213/02 P, EU:C:2005:408, point 148, ainsi qu’ordonnances Piau/Commission, C‑171/05 P, EU:C:2006:149, point 86, et Saint-Gobain Glass Deutschland/Commission, C‑503/07 P, EU:C:2008:207, point 62).

36. It should first be recalled that, as is stated in recital 11 in the preamble to Directive 2008/95, the function of the protection afforded by a trade mark is in particular to guarantee the mark to the consumer or end-user as an indication of origin of the product or services denoted by the trade mark, by enabling him, without any possibility of confusion, to distinguish the product or service from others which have another origin (see, to that effect, Case C-39/97 Canon [1998] ECR I-5507, paragraph 28; Case C-273/00 Sieckmann [2002] ECR I-11737, paragraphs 34 and 35; and Case C-529/07 Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli [2009] ECR I-4893, paragraph 45).

65. The existence of an economic unit may thus be inferred from a body of consistent evidence, even if some of that evidence, taken in isolation, is insufficient to establish the existence of such a unit.

41 Therefore, even if that case-law on the exercise of an intellectual property right were applicable to the exercise of any property right whatever, it would still be necessary, for the Magill judgment to be effectively relied upon in order to plead the existence of an abuse within the meaning of Article 86 of the Treaty in a situation such as that which forms the subject-matter of the first question, not only that the refusal of the service comprised in home delivery be likely to eliminate all competition in the daily newspaper market on the part of the person requesting the service and that such refusal be incapable of being objectively justified, but also that the service in itself be indispensable to carrying on that person's business, inasmuch as there is no actual or potential substitute in existence for that home-delivery scheme.

67. That said, it should be recalled that, with the adoption of Regulation No 261/2004, the legislature was also seeking to strike a balance between the interests of air passengers and those of air carriers. Having laid down certain rights for those passengers, it provided at the same time, in Recital 15 and Article 5(3) of the regulation, that air carriers are not obliged to pay compensation if they can prove that the cancellation or long delay is caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken, namely circumstances which are beyond the air carrier’s actual control.

54. In accordance with settled case‑law, freedom of establishment for nationals of one Member State on the territory of another Member State includes the right to take up and pursue activities as self-employed persons and to set up and manage undertakings under the conditions laid down for its own nationals by the law of the Member State of establishment. The abolition of restrictions on freedom of establishment also applies to restrictions on the setting up of agencies, branches or subsidiaries by nationals of a Member State established in the territory of another Member State (see, inter alia, Case 270/83 Commission v France [1986] ECR 273, paragraph 13; Case C‑311/97 Royal bank of Scotland [1999] ECR I‑2651, paragraph 22; and Case C‑253/03 CLT‑UFA [2006] ECR I‑1831, paragraph 13).

38. It is to be remembered first of all that the Sixth Directive establishes a common system of VAT based, inter alia , on a uniform definition of taxable transactions.

30 The non-application of the principle of equal treatment to the Union’s relations with third countries is confirmed by the manner in which the Court has given effect to the principle, enshrined in the case-law, referred to in paragraph 26 of this judgment. Accordingly, in the judgment of 28 October 1982, Faust v Commission (52/81, EU:C:1982:369, paragraph 25) the Court confined itself to finding that the difference in treatment of certain imports was due to a difference in treatment of third countries, in order to conclude that that difference in treatment was not contrary to EU law. Likewise, the Court has held that different treatment of traders marketing goods from third countries, which was the automatic consequence of a difference in treatment of third countries, was not contrary to the general principle of equal treatment (see judgments of 10 March 1998, Germany v Council, C‑122/95, EU:C:1998:94, paragraphs 56 to 58, and of 10 March 1998, T. Port, C‑364/95 and C‑365/95, EU:C:1998:95, paragraphs 76 and 77).

80. While it is for the domestic legal system of each Member State to lay down the detailed procedural rules governing actions for safeguarding rights which individuals derive from Community law, the fact remains that those rules must not be such as to render virtually impossible or excessively difficult the exercise of rights conferred by Community law (see, to that effect, Case 33/76 Rewe [1976] ECR 1989, paragraph 5, and Case C-129/00 Commission v Italy [2003] ECR I-0000, paragraph 25).

26 Secondly, it must be pointed out that, according to settled case-law, it is not for the Court of Justice to determine whether the decision whereby a matter is brought before it was taken in accordance with the rules of national law governing the organisation of the courts and their procedure (judgment of 7 July 2016, Genentech, C‑567/14, EU:C:2016:526, paragraph 22 and the case-law cited).

34. Although it is true that the interest of a football league lies in the overall result of the various matches in that league, the fact remains that the data concerning the date, the time and the identity of the teams in a particular match have an independent value in that they provide interested third parties with relevant information.

105 It should be noted that, as the Commission is right to emphasise, the aim of the procedure for the clearance of accounts is to establish whether the credits made available to the Member States have been disbursed in accordance with the Community rules in force in the context of the common organisation of the markets. As pointed out at paragraph 35 of this judgment, where the Commission refuses to charge certain expenditure to the EAGGF on the ground that it was incurred as a result of breaches of Community rules for which a Member State can be held responsible, the Commission is required not to demonstrate exhaustively that there are irregularities in the data submitted by the Member States but to adduce evidence of serious and reasonable doubt on its part regarding the figures submitted by the national authorities (Case C-48/91 Netherlands v Commission, cited above, paragraphs 16 and 17).

68 As the Court held in its judgment in the Battery Hens case, cited above, that means that only simple corrections of spelling and grammar may be made to the text of an act after its formal adoption by the college of Commissioners, any further alteration being the exclusive province of the college.

23. The rules of jurisdiction laid down by Regulation No 44/2001 are founded on the principle that jurisdiction is generally based on the defendant’s domicile, as provided in Article 2 thereof, complemented by the rules of special jurisdiction (see Reisch Montage , paragraph 22, and Color Drack , paragraph 21).

86 THAT IS NOT THE POSITION OF THE APPLICANTS IN THE PRESENT CASE . THE STUDIES PRODUCED BY MDF AND PIONEER GB SHOW THAT THE MARKET IN HI-FI PRODUCTS IN FRANCE AND THE UNITED KINGDOM IS VERY LARGE BUT THAT IT IS MARKEDLY DIVIDED BETWEEN A VERY GREAT NUMBER OF BRANDS , SO THAT THE PERCENTAGES STATED BY THE APPLICANTS EXCEED THOSE OF MOST OF THEIR COMPETITORS . IF REGARD IS HAD SOLELY TO IMPORTED BRANDS , IT EVEN SEEMS THAT THE TWO APPLICANTS WERE AMONGST THE LARGEST SUPPLIERS OF THE TWO MARKETS . IN THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES , REGARD BEING HAD TO THEIR ABSOLUTE TURNOVER FIGURES , IT CANNOT BE DENIED THAT CONDUCT BY THOSE UNDERTAKINGS SEEKING TO RESTRAIN PARALLEL IMPORTS AND THEREFORE TO PARTITION NATIONAL MARKETS WAS CAPABLE OF EXERCISING AN INFLUENCE ON THE PATTERN OF TRADE BETWEEN MEMBER STATES IN A WAY CAPABLE OF HINDERING THE ATTAINMENT OF THE OBJECTIVES OF A SINGLE MARKET .

36. It must be noted that under Article 4(1) of the Sixth Directive a taxable person is any person who independently carries out any economic activity specified in paragraph 2 of that article. ‘Economic activities’ are defined in Article 4(2) as comprising all activities of producers, traders and persons supplying services, and in particular the exploitation of tangible or intangible property for the purpose of obtaining income therefrom on a continuing basis. ‘Exploitation’ within the meaning of Article 4(2) refers, in accordance with the requirements of the principle that the common system of VAT should be neutral, to all those transactions, whatever may be their legal form (see Case C‑186/89 Van Tiem [1990] ECR I‑4363, paragraph 18; Case C-306/94 Régie dauphinoise [1996] ECR I‑3695, paragraph 15, and Case C-77/01 EDM [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 48).

47 There is no dispute, given that description, that the provider of such a service does not itself directly debit or credit the accounts concerned, and that it does not act by accounting entries, and that it does not even instruct such debit or credit, since it is the purchaser who, by using his or her payment card to make a purchase, decides that his or her account will be debited in favour of a third party.

30. Since the statement of reasons for the basic regulation is, in itself, sufficient, the General Court cannot be criticised for having taken into consideration during its examination, in paragraph 50 of the judgment under appeal, the supplementary information, submitted by the Commission during the judicial proceedings, relating to the situation regarding the legislation of the Member States that led to the adoption of that regulation, information which merely clarified the statement of reasons for the basic regulation, in accordance with the Court of Justice’s case-law. In the context of examination of the choice of Article 95 EC as a legal basis, account is taken in that case-law of such clarification provided during the judicial proceedings of the statement of reasons for the act at issue (see, in particular, judgments in British American Tobacco (Investments) and Imperial Tobacco , C‑491/01, EU:C:2002:741, paragraphs 68, 70 and 73; United Kingdom v Parliament and Council , C‑217/04, EU:C:2006:279, paragraph 61, and Germany v Parliament and Council , C‑380/03, EU:C:2006:772, paragraphs 46 and 47).

37. That demonstrates that the Community legislature intended to make a clear allocation between the interventions to be made by the national and by the Community authorities, and that it wished to ensure a control of mergers within deadlines compatible with both the requirements of sound administration and the requirements of the business world ( Schlüsselverlag J.S. Moser and Others , paragraph 34, and Portugal v Commission , paragraph 53).

32. It is thus apparent that the expression ‘to the extent that it is permitted under that law to do so’, in paragraph 112 of Cartesio , cannot be understood as seeking to remove, from the outset, the legislation of the host Member State on company conversions from the scope of the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union governing the freedom of establishment, but as reflecting the mere consideration that a company established in accordance with national law exists only on the basis of the national legislation which ‘permits’ the incorporation of the company, provided the conditions laid down to that effect are satisfied.

29. Il ressort de la jurisprudence de la Cour que, en tant que dérogation à la règle fondamentale de la libre circulation et de la non-discrimination des travailleurs communautaires, l’article 39, paragraphe 4, CE doit recevoir une interprétation qui limite sa portée à ce qui est strictement nécessaire pour sauvegarder les intérêts que cette disposition permet aux États membres de protéger (arrêts précités Colegio de Oficiales de la Marina Mercante Española, point 41; Anker e.a., point 60 et jurisprudence citée, ainsi que Commission/Italie, point 15 et jurisprudence citée).

51 If the national court should declare one or more of the clauses in the contract void, it must be added that, as the Court has held (see VAG France, cited above, paragraph 14), the consequences, for all other parts of the agreement or for other obligations flowing from it, of the fact that those contractual provisions which are incompatible with Article 85(1) are automatically void are not a matter for Community law. It is therefore also for the national court to determine, in accordance with the relevant national law, the extent and consequences, for the contractual relation as a whole, of the nullity of certain contractual provisions by virtue of Article 85(2).

73. In those circumstances, national legislation offering a company transferring its place of effective management to another Member State the choice between, first, immediate payment of the amount of tax, which creates a disadvantage for that company in terms of cash flow but frees it from subsequent administrative burdens, and, secondly, deferred payment of the amount of tax, possibly together with interest in accordance with the applicable national legislation, which necessarily involves an administrative burden for the company in connection with tracing the transferred assets, would constitute a measure which, while being appropriate for ensuring the balanced allocation of powers of taxation between the Member States, would be less harmful to freedom of establishment than the measure at issue in the main proceedings. If a company were to consider that the administrative burden in connection with deferred recovery was excessive, it could opt for immediate payment of the tax.

21. According to Article 71(1)(a)(ii) of Regulation No 1408/71, a frontier worker who is wholly unemployed is subject to the legislation of the Member State in whose territory he resides. The Court has held that that provision is based on the assumption that such a worker would find in that State the conditions most favourable to the search for new employment ( Miethe , paragraph 17).

16. In the first place, as regards the ‘act of communication’, that refers to any transmission of the protected works, irrespective of the technical means or process used (judgment in Football Association Premier League and Others , C‑403/08 and C‑429/08, EU:C:2011:631, paragraph 193).

40 In this regard, first, the judgment in Evroetil (C‑503/10, EU:C:2011:872), cited by the referring court, is not such as to alter that finding. The case giving rise to that judgment concerned the concept of ‘denaturing’ and not the distinction between edible and inedible mixtures. In that case, the Court concluded that a product that had not been denatured pursuant to a process among those laid down by the applicable provision could not benefit from the exemption from excise duty at issue in that case, even though that product contained substances making it unfit for human consumption (see, to that effect, judgment in Evroetil, C‑503/10, EU:C:2011:872, paragraph 66). In the present case, however, the wording of CN subheading 1518 00 31 covers not only mixtures of vegetable oils which have been denatured pursuant to certain processes but, generally, inedible mixtures of vegetable oils.

50. As follows from that provision, in particular the second sentence which states that the common commercial policy is within the context of ‘the Union’s external action’, that policy relates to trade with non-member countries, not to trade in the internal market.

30 Thus, neither Directive 98/59 nor the earlier Directive 75/129 impinges upon the employer’s freedom to effect or refrain from effecting collective redundancies (see, in respect of Directive 75/129, judgments of 12 February 1985, Dansk Metalarbejderforbund and Specialarbejderforbundet i Danmark, 284/83, EU:C:1985:61, paragraph 10, and of 7 September 2006, Agorastoudis and Others, C‑187/05 to C‑190/05, EU:C:2006:535, paragraph 35).

52. In the present case, it is possible that the procedure for establishing the amount of the penalty may go further than is necessary to attain the objectives set out in paragraph 45 of this judgment.

75. Such an interpretation would also ignore the fact that the European Community is based on the rule of law, inasmuch as neither its Member States nor its institutions can avoid a review of the question whether the measures adopted by them are in conformity with the basic constitutional charter, the EC Treaty, which established a complete system of legal remedies and procedures designed to permit the Court of Justice to review the legality of measures adopted by the institutions (see, inter alia , Case C-314/91 Weber v Parliament [1993] ECR I-1093, paragraph 8, and the case law cited). It is appropriate to bear in mind in that regard that although it is not a European Community institution, the EIB none the less is a Community body established and endowed with legal personality by the EC Treaty (see, in particular, Case 110/75 Mills v EIB [1976] ECR 955, paragraph 14, Case 85/86 Commission v EIB [1988] ECR 1281, paragraph 24, and Case C-370/89 SGEEM and Etroy v EIB [1992] ECR I-6211, paragraph 13) and it is on that account that the EIB is subject to judicial review by the Court, in particular as provided for in Article 237(b) EC. Article 230 EC

43. Accordingly, the Austrian legislation must be regarded as having existed on 31 December 1993 for the purposes of Article 57(1) EC.

22. In order to reply to that question, it should be recalled, at the outset, that the objective of the obligation on applicants seeking marketing authorisation for a medicinal product, to attach to the application the results of toxicological and pharmacological tests, and clinical trials, referred to in Article 8(3)(i) of Directive 2001/83, is to provide proof of the safety and efficacy of a medicinal product (see, to that effect, Case C‑440/93 Scotia Pharmaceuticals [1995] ECR I‑2851, paragraph 17, and Case C‑368/96 Generics (UK) and Others [1998] ECR I‑7967, paragraph 23).

15 When such a finding has been made, as in the present case, it is irrelevant whether the failure to fulfil obligations is the result of intention or negligence on the part of the Member State responsible, or of technical difficulties encountered by it.

14. It should be recalled at the outset that, according to settled case‑law, while direct taxation falls within their competence, Member States must none the less exercise that competence in accordance with European Union law (Case C‑334/02 Commission v France [2004] ECR I‑2229, paragraph 21; Case C‑155/09 Commission v Greece [2011] ECR I‑65, paragraph 39; and Case C‑10/10 Commission v Austria [2011] ECR I‑5389, paragraph 23).

46 Il y a lieu également de rappeler que les dispositions de ces règlements relatives à la force majeure ont été adoptées précisément pour protéger les opérateurs économiques des conséquences préjudiciables, pour eux, de circonstances anormales et qu'ils ne pouvaient pas prévoir. Selon ces dispositions, les exportateurs sont dispensés du paiement des pénalités, mais non du remboursement des restitutions perçues à l'avance.

36. In the second place, it must be pointed out that the application of Article 54 of the CISA is not conditional on the harmonisation or approximation of the criminal laws of the Member States concerning in absentia judgments (see, to that effect, concerning procedures whereby further prosecution is barred, Gözütok and Brügge , paragraph 32).

48. Therefore, where they adopt measures which fall within the scope of the Directive, which gives specific expression, in the domain of employment and occupation, to the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age, the social partners must respect the Directive (see, to that effect, Case C‑127/92 Enderby [1993] ECR I‑5535, paragraph 22).

47 Moreover, a course of conduct satisfying the conditions indicative of a usage does not cease to be a usage because it is challenged before the courts, whatever the extent of the challenges, provided that it still continues to be generally and regularly followed in the trade with which the type of contract in question is concerned (see, to that effect, judgment of 16 March 1999 in Castelletti, C‑159/97, EU:C:1999:142, paragraph 29).

43. Consequently, even if a prohibition such as that at issue in the main proceedings is applicable to all traders active in the national territory, its actual effect is none the less greater on goods leaving the market of the exporting Member State than on the marketing of goods in the domestic market of that Member State.

49. It must be pointed out in that regard that, in the absence of any unifying or harmonising Community measures, Member States retain the power to define, by treaty or unilaterally, the criteria for allocating their powers of taxation, particularly with a view to eliminating double taxation (Case C-336/96 Gilly [1998] ECR I-2793, paragraphs 24 and 30; Case C-470/04 N [2006] ECR I-0000, paragraph 44; and Case C‑513/04 Kerckhaert and Morres [2006] ECR I-0000, paragraphs 22 and 23). In that context, it is for the Member States to take the measures necessary to prevent double taxation by applying, in particular, the apportionment criteria followed in international tax practice, including the model conventions drawn up by the OECD (see, to that effect, Gilly , paragraph 31; N , paragraph 45; and Kerckhaert and Morres , paragraph 23).

20. À cet égard, il résulte d’une jurisprudence constante de la Cour que la notion de «livraison de biens» visée aux articles 5, paragraphe 1, de la sixième directive et 14, paragraphe 1, de la directive 2006/112 ne se réfère pas au transfert de propriété dans les formes prévues par le droit national applicable, mais qu’elle inclut toute opération de transfert d’un bien corporel par une partie qui habilite l’autre partie à en disposer en fait comme si elle était le propriétaire de ce bien (voir arrêts du 14 juillet 2005, British American Tobacco et Newman Shipping, C‑435/03, Rec. p. I‑7077, point 35; Optigen e.a., précité, point 39; Halifax e.a., précité, point 51; du 3 juin 2010, De Fruytier, C‑237/09, Rec. p. I‑4985, point 24, et du 18 juillet 2013, Evita-K, C‑78/12, point 33).

31. The decision at issue was adopted on 21 February 2007, that is to say before the Treaty of Lisbon was adopted, on 13 December 2007, and, a fortiori , before the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, on 1 December 2009. It is settled case-law that, in an action for annulment, the legality of the contested measure must be assessed on the basis of the facts and the law as they stood at the time when the measure was adopted (see Joined Cases 15/76 and 16/76 France v Commission [1979] ECR 321, paragraph 7; Case C‑449/98 P IECC v Commission [2011] ECR I‑3875, paragraph 87; and Case C‑309/10 Agrana Zucker [2011] ECR I‑7333, paragraph 31).

35 Consequently, it must be held that, by precluding by regulation or administrative practice on the grounds of their nationality employed or self-employed workers from other Member States and the members of their families from being attributed large-family status for the purpose of the award of special benefits for such families and from being awarded family allowances, the Hellenic Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 48 and 52 of the EC Treaty, Article 7 of Regulation No 1612/68, Article 7 of Regulation No 1251/70, Article 7 of Directive 75/34 and Article 3 of Regulation No 1408/71.

19 It should be observed as a preliminary point that, according to the Court’s settled case-law, in the procedure laid down by Article 267 TFEU, providing for cooperation between national courts and the Court of Justice, it is for the latter to provide the national court with an answer which will be of use to it and enable it to determine the case before it. With this in mind, the Court of Justice may, where necessary, have to reformulate the questions referred to it (see, to that effect, judgment of 13 October 2016, M. and S., C‑303/15, EU:C:2016:771, paragraph 16 and the case-law cited).

38 In that regard, the third recital in the preamble to Directive 75/442 states that the essential objective of all provisions relating to waste disposal must be the protection of human health and the environment against harmful effects caused by the collection, transport, treatment, storage and tipping of waste.

47. However, the requirement of availability cannot in any circumstances constitute an independent restriction of the effects of the trade mark in addition to those expressly provided for in Article 6(1)(b) of the Directive. It must be stated in that regard that, in order for a third party to be able to plead the limitations of the effects of the trade mark in Article 6(1)(b) of the Directive and rely in that respect on the requirement of availability underlying that provision, the indication used by it must, as required by that provision of the Directive, relate to one of the characteristics of the goods marketed or the service provided by that third party (see, to that effect, Windsurfing Chiemsee , paragraph 28, and Case C-48/05 Adam Opel [2007] ECR I-1017, paragraphs 42 to 44).

36 However, acceptance of the payment declaration does not authorise the customs administration to pay the trader that advance. That payment can be made only after the exporter has then submitted a request in writing to that end, the exporter thus having the opportunity to decide the date of the payment of the advance or, where the destination of the goods has been changed, to renounce that payment totally.

34 Second, the soya meal, from which Imcosoy 62 is obtained, must be considered to be a defatted product, even though a presence of trifling quantities of oil may still be detected residually (see, to that effect, judgment in Fancon, 129/81, EU:C:1982:91, paragraphs 10 and 14).

21. In order to answer that question, it is to be noted at the outset that the terms used to specify the exemptions provided for by Article 13 of the Sixth Directive are to be interpreted strictly, since they constitute exceptions to the general principle that VAT is to be levied on all services supplied for consideration by a taxable person (see, inter alia, SDC , cited above, paragraph 20, and Case C-472/03 Arthur Andersen [2005] ECR I-1719, paragraph 24).

48 Furthermore, the assessment referred to in that provision is subject to the same requirements as those deriving from the Court’s case-law where it concerns the existence of a real risk for public health, alleged by a Member State to justify a measure prohibiting the marketing of a food supplement in accordance with Article 36 TFEU. In that regard, the Court has in particular held that the existence of such a risk must be shown in each case in the light of national nutritional habits and in the light of the results of international scientific research (see judgments of 23 September 2003, Commission v Denmark, C‑192/01, EU:C:2003:492, paragraph 46; of 5 February 2004, Commission v France, C‑24/00, EU:C:2004:70, paragraph 53; and of 29 April 2010, Solgar Vitamin’s France and Others, C‑446/08, EU:C:2010:233, paragraph 55).

130. Passing this on to its customers, the broadcaster may thus demand a different fee for access to its services according to whether the access is for commercial or for private purposes.

26 In order to interpret Article 7(1) of Regulation No 3950/92 and, more specifically, to ascertain whether clawback measures such as those at issue in the main proceedings may be included amongst the detailed rules to be determined by the Member States, it is first necessary to recall the Court's settled case-law to the effect that the entire system of reference quantities is based on the general principle laid down initially by Article 7 of Regulation No 857/84 and Article 7 of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1546/88 of 3 June 1988 laying down detailed rules for the application of the additional levy referred to in Article 5c of Regulation No 804/68 (OJ 1988 L 139, p. 12) and then by the first subparagraph of Article 7(1) of Regulation No 3950/92. According to that principle, the reference quantity is allocated in relation to land and must therefore be transferred with that land (see, to that effect, Case C-98/91 Herbrink [1994] ECR I-223, paragraph 13, Case C-189/92 Le Nan [1994] ECR I-261, paragraph 12, Case C-463/93 St. Martinus Elten [1997] ECR I-255, paragraph 24; and Case C-15/95 EARL de Kerlast [1997] ECR I-1961, paragraphs 17 and 18).

32. When Member States establish or accept a particular method of rounding, they are obliged to observe the principles governing the common system of VAT, such as those of fiscal neutrality and proportionality. It does not, however, follow from observance of those recognised principles of the Community legal system that the question as to which specific method of rounding should be used is itself within the scope of Community law.

47 As regards the effects of the Maribel bis/ter scheme on intra-Community trade, it must be recalled that, according to the case-law of the Court, when State aid strengthens the position of an undertaking compared with other undertakings competing in intra-Community trade, the latter must be regarded as affected by the aid, even if the beneficiary undertaking is itself not involved in exporting. Where a Member State grants aid to an undertaking, domestic production may for that reason be maintained or increased, with the result that undertakings established in other Member States have less chance of exporting their products to the market in that Member State (Joined Cases C-278/92 to C-280/92 Spain v Commission [1994] ECR I-4103, paragraph 40).

41. It must therefore be held that, since on expiry of the period prescribed by Article 221(3) of the Customs Code the debt is time-barred and, consequently, extinguished, that provision enacts a substantive rule.

46 The rule of special jurisdiction laid down in Article 5(3) of the Brussels Convention is based on the existence of a particularly close connecting factor between a dispute and the courts for the place where the harmful event occurred, which justifies the attribution of jurisdiction to those courts for reasons relating to the sound administration of justice and the efficacious conduct of proceedings (see to that effect, inter alia, Mines de Potasse d'Alsace, paragraphs 11 and 17; Dumez France and Tracoba, paragraph 17; Shevill and Others, paragraph 19, and Marinari, paragraph 10). The courts for the place where the harmful event occurred are usually the most appropriate for deciding the case, in particular on the grounds of proximity and ease of taking evidence. Those considerations are equally relevant whether the dispute concerns compensation for damage which has already occurred or relates to an action seeking to prevent the occurrence of damage.

66. The link of integration arises from, inter alia, the fact that, through the taxes which he pays in the host Member State by virtue of his employment, the migrant worker also contributes to the financing of the social policies of that State and should profit from them under the same conditions as national workers.

26. It must be recalled, first of all, that in accordance with settled case-law, the subject-matter of an action under Article 258 TFEU for failure to fulfil obligations is determined by the Commission’s reasoned opinion, with the result that the action must be based on the same grounds and pleas as that opinion (see Case C‑33/04 Commission v Luxembourg [2005] ECR I‑10629, paragraph 36; Case C‑236/05 Commission v United Kingdom [2006] ECR I‑10819, paragraph 10; and Case C‑171/08 Commission v Portugal [2010] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 25).

102. Consequently, Directive 77/799 does not require the Member State where the company receiving dividends is established to have recourse to the mechanism of mutual assistance for which the directive provides as soon as the information provided by that company is not sufficient to establish whether it fulfils the conditions laid down by the national legislation for application of the imputation method.

31. It should be noted that any Community national who, irrespective of his place of residence and his nationality, has exercised the right to freedom of movement for workers and who has been employed in a Member State other than that of residence falls within the scope of Article 48 EC (see Case C-385/00 De Groot [2002] ECR I-11819, paragraph 76; Case C-209/01 Schilling and Fleck-Schilling [2003] ECR I-13389, paragraph 23; and Case C-277/03 Van Pommeren-Bourgondiën [2005] ECR I‑0000, paragraphs 19, 44 and 45).

51 That removal from customs supervision also ended the external transit procedure (see, to that effect, judgment of 11 July 2002, Liberexim, C‑371/99, EU:C:2002:433, paragraph 53).

29. According to that case-law, there is a risk that common Community rules might be adversely affected by international commitments undertaken by Member States, or that the scope of those rules might be altered, which is such as to justify an exclusive external competence of the Community, when those commitments fall within the scope of those rules (see, inter alia, judgment in Commission v Council , EU:C:2014:2151, paragraph 68 and the case-law cited, and Opinion 1/13, EU:C:2014:2303, point 71).

22 Taxes paid on the registration of new public and private limited companies are directly referred to in the prohibition laid down by Article 10(c) of the Directive. A similar conclusion must also be reached where those charges are payable on the registration of increases in the capital of such companies, since they too are imposed on account of an essential formality connected with the legal form of the companies in question. While registration of an increase in capital does not formally amount to a procedure which is required before a capital company commences business, it is none the less necessary for the carrying on of that business (Fantask, cited above, paragraph 22).

41. According to the case-law relating to the tractor market (Case T-34/92 Fiatagri and New Holland Ford v Commission [1994] ECR II-905, Case T-35/92 John Deere v Commission [1994] ECR II-957, Case C-7/95 P John Deere v Commission [1998] ECR I-3111, and Case C-8/95 P New Holland Ford v Commission [1998] ECR I-3175), in which the Court of First Instance and the Court of Justice first examined an agreement on the exchange of information in the context of the EC Treaty and the general findings of which can be applied to the ECSC Treaty, such an agreement is incompatible with the rules on competition if it reduces or removes the degree of uncertainty as to the operation of the market in question with the result that competition between undertakings is restricted (see, in particular, Case C-7/95 P John Deere , cited above, paragraph 90).

19 In the present case, the entitlement of married couples to joint assessment to tax is subject to a residence condition for both spouses, which Luxembourg nationals will be able to satisfy more easily than nationals of other Member States who have settled in the Grand Duchy in order to pursue an economic activity there, the members of whose families more frequently live outside Luxembourg.

61 In that regard, it is settled case-law that the authorities enjoy broad discretion in carrying out subsequent checks (see, to that effect, judgments of 12 July 2012, Südzucker and Others, C‑608/10, C‑10/11 and C‑23/11, EU:C:2012:444, paragraphs 48 and 50, and of 10 December 2015, Veloserviss, C‑427/14, EU:C:2015:803, paragraphs 27 and 28).

40. However, some of their provisions may necessitate, for their implementation, the adoption of measures of application by the Member States ( Handlbauer , paragraph 26 and the case-law cited).

45. It must be borne in mind that, in paragraphs 41 to 43 of the judgment in Case C‑329/00 Spain v Commission , the Court held that the date which must be regarded as decisive as regards assessment of whether expenditure was effected within the period of 24 months referred to in the fifth point of Article 5(2)(c) of Regulation No 729/70 and the fifth subparagraph of Article 7(4) of Regulation No 1258/1999 must be that on which the final amount of the compensatory aid is fixed and the balance paid by the Member State concerned.

43. The margin of appreciation left for the Member States by the Framework Agreement is indeed not unlimited, because it cannot in any event go so far as to compromise the objective or the practical effect of the Framework Agreement ( Adeneler and Others , paragraph 82, and Angelidaki and Others , paragraph 155).

8 As regards Article 7(4) of the directive, it is established case-law that Member States are obliged to ensure that the provisions of a directive are applied exactly and in full (see, in particular, the judgment in Case C-287/91 Commission v Italy [1992] ECR I-3515, paragraph 7).

14 IT CAN BE SEEN FROM THE PREAMBLE TO REGULATION NO 1957/69 THAT THE 20% SUPPLEMENT WAS LAID DOWN IN ORDER TO PREVENT THE EXPORTER CONCERNED OBTAINING UNDUE BENEFIT . UNDER THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR ADVANCE PAYMENT TRADERS WOULD OBTAIN UNDUE INTEREST-FREE CREDIT IF IT SUBSEQUENTLY EMERGED THAT THE REFUND SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED .

70. However, that right is none the less subject to certain limitations based on grounds of public or private interest ( Sison v Council , paragraph 62, and Commission v Technische Glaswerke Ilmenau , paragraph 53).

51. In those judgments, the Court held that, where a benefit granted by a bilateral tax convention cannot be classified as a benefit that is separable from that convention, but contributes to its overall balance (the fact that the reciprocal rights and obligations arising under that convention apply only to persons resident in one of the two contracting Member States being an inherent consequence of bilateral conventions), Community law does not preclude the benefit in question from not being conferred on the resident of a third Member State, in so far as that resident is not in a situation comparable to that of residents covered by the convention in question (see, to that effect, D. , paragraphs 59 to 63, and Test Claimants in Class IV of the ACT Group Litigation , paragraphs 88 to 93).

48. The fact nevertheless remains that, when exercising that power, Member States must comply with EU law and, in particular, with the provisions on the freedom to provide services (see, inter alia, Case C‑157/99 Smits and Peerbooms [2001] ECR I‑5473, paragraphs 44 to 46; Müller-Fauré and van Riet , paragraph 100; Watts , paragraph 92; Elchinov , paragraph 40; Case C‑211/08 Commission v Spain [2010] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 53; and Commission v Luxembourg , paragraph 32).

29 Beside the fact that no reason has been put forward to show why an institution should be able to keep secret the items of information in a document which are not covered by the exceptions laid down in Article 4(1) of Decision 93/731, a refusal to grant partial access would be manifestly disproportionate for ensuring the confidentiality of the items of information covered by one of those exceptions. As the Court of First Instance observed in paragraph 85 of the contested judgment, the aim pursued by the Council in refusing access to the contested report could be achieved even if the Council did no more than remove, after examination, the passages in the report which might harm international relations.

65 In the present case, the Court of First Instance found that KLE and its supplier had agreed, at least implicitly, at the time of submission of the contract to the Agency, that the materials would come from the CIS, so that the parties were in a position to mention the origin of the uranium in the contract itself; consequently, it held, in paragraph 36, that later communication as provided for in Article 5 bis (c) of the Rules of the information on the country of origin was not permissible. Such a finding of fact does not, except where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted, which has not been established in this case, constitute a point of law which is subject as such to review by the Court of Justice (see, inter alia, Case C-136/92 P Commission v Brazzelli Lualdi and Others [1994] ECR I-1981, paragraphs 47 to 49 and 66; the order of 17 September 1996 in Case C-19/95 P San Marco v Commission [1996] ECR I-4435, paragraphs 36 to 40; and Case C-7/95 P Deere v Commission [1998] ECR I-3111, paragraphs 18 to 22).

19 It follows from those provisions that an appeal must indicate precisely the contested elements of the judgment which the appellant seeks to have set aside, and also the legal arguments specifically advanced in support of the appeal (see the order in Case C-19/95 P San Marco v Commission [1996] ECR I-4435, paragraph 37).

36. However, a plant protection product introduced into the territory of a Member State as a parallel import cannot, automatically or absolutely and unconditionally, have the benefit of a marketing authorisation issued to a plant protection product already on the market of that State. If the plant protection product cannot be regarded as having already been authorised in the Member State of importation, that State must issue a marketing authorisation according to the conditions laid down by Directive 91/414 or prohibit its being placed on the market and used (see, to that effect, British Agrochemicals Association , paragraph 37, and Escalier and Bonnarel , paragraphs 30 and 31).

67. In the case of the referencing service, it is common ground that the advertiser, having chosen as a keyword a sign identical with another person’s trade mark, intends that internet users who enter that word as a search term should click not only on the links displayed which come from the proprietor of the trade mark, but also on the advertising link of that advertiser.

34. Moreover, the existence of a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public must be appreciated globally, taking into account all factors relevant to the circumstances of the case (see SABEL, paragraph 22; Lloyd Schuchfabrik Meyer , paragraph 18; Case C-425/98 Marca Mode [2000] ECR I-4861, paragraph 40; order in Matratzen v OHIM, paragraph 28; Medion , paragraph 27; and Case C-206/04 P Mülhens v OHIM [2006] ECR I-2717, paragraph 18).

20. It follows, first, that the decisive factor for the grant of the certificate is not the intended use of the medicinal product and, second, that the purpose of the protection conferred by the certificate relates to any use of the product as a medicinal product without any distinction between use of the product as a medicinal product for human use and as a veterinary medicinal product.

20. The representation, by a design, of the layout of a retail store is also capable of distinguishing the products or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings and, hence, satisfying the third condition referred to at paragraph 17 of this judgment. In that regard, it suffices to observe that it cannot be ruled out that the layout of a retail outlet depicted by such a sign may allow the products or the services for which registration is sought to be identified as originating from a particular undertaking. As the French Government and the Commission have submitted, this could be the case when the depicted layout departs significantly from the norm or customs of the economic sector concerned (see, by analogy, as to signs consisting of the appearance of the product itself, Storck v OHIM , C‑25/05 P, EU:C:2006:422, paragraph 28, and Vuitton Malletier v OHIM , C‑97/12 P, EU:C:2014:324, paragraph 52).

27. It follows that a situation such as that of Mr Aladzhov, who seeks to travel from the Member State of which he is a national to another Member State, is covered by the right of citizens of the Union to move and reside freely in the Member States.

40 According to settled case-law, the interpretation which the Court, in the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred upon it by Article 267 TFEU, gives to EU law clarifies and, where necessary, defines the meaning and scope of that law as it must be, or ought to have been, understood and applied from the time of its coming into force. It follows that, unless there are truly exceptional circumstances, which is not claimed to be the case here, EU law as thus interpreted must be applied by the courts even to legal relationships which arose and were established before the judgment ruling on the request for interpretation, provided that in other respects the conditions for bringing a dispute relating to the application of that law before the courts having jurisdiction are satisfied (see, inter alia, judgment in Gmina Wrocław, C‑276/14, EU:C:2015:635, paragraphs 44 and 45 and the case-law cited).

42. Ensuite, ces deux dispositions poursuivent des objectifs différents.

46. Further, it must be noted that Article 41(1) of the Additional Protocol may be invoked validly by Turkish lorry drivers such as the appellants in the main proceedings who are employed by an undertaking established in Turkey that lawfully provides services in a Member State, on the ground that the employees of the provider of services are indispensable to enable him to provide his services (see Abatay and Others , paragraphs 106 and 117, fifth indent).

64. In that case, the determination must be such as to enable interested parties to decide whether to appeal against the determination in question, taking into account any factors which might subsequently be brought to their attention.

37. It appears from the foregoing considerations that, as regards Regulation No 222/2011 and Implementing Regulation No 293/2011, since the appellants do not have the status of producers of sugar and their legal situation is not directly affected by those regulations, those regulations are not of direct concern to them within the meaning of the final limb of the fourth paragraph of Article 263 TFEU (see judgments in Glencore Grain v Commission , C-404/96 P, EU:C:1998:196, paragraph 41; Front national v Parliament , C-486/01 P, EU:C:2004:394, paragraph 34; Commission v Ente per le Ville Vesuviane and Ente per le Ville Vesuviane v Commission , C-445/07 P and C-455/07 P, EU:C:2009:529, paragraph 45; and Stichting Woonpunt and Others v Commission , C-132/12 P, EU:C:2014:100, paragraph 68).

Il ressort de la comparaison de ces mesures que le Conseil s’est réservé la compétence pour adopter les plus sensibles d’entre elles, à savoir l’intégration, dans le règlement adopté sur la base du traité FUE, des désignations décidées par le Conseil de sécurité et l’application des mesures visées à l’article 23, paragraphes 2 et 3, du règlement n° 267/2012, en ce qu’elles ont une incidence particulièrement importante sur les personnes physiques ou morales, les entités ou les organismes concernés (arrêt du 1er mars 2016, National Iranian Oil Company/Conseil, C‑440/14 P, EU:C:2016:128, point 52).

35. In addition, as regards the grounds of an economic nature put forward by the Italian Government, such as the need to ensure continuity, financial stability and a proper return on past investments for licence holders, suffice it to point out that those cannot be accepted as overriding reasons in the general interest justifying a restriction of a fundamental freedom guaranteed by the Treaty (see, to that effect, Case C‑35/98 Verkooijen [2000] ECR I‑4071, paragraph 48, and Case C‑388/01 Commission v Italie [2003] ECR I‑721, paragraph 22).

32 The answer to the second and third questions must therefore be that the limitation of the effects in time of the Barber judgment does not apply to the right to join an occupational pension scheme and that, in this context, there is no scope for any analogous limitation. The fourth question

115. The Court also held in that judgment that, by undertaking after the adoption of the DSB’s decision of 25 September 1997 to comply with the WTO rules and, in particular, with Articles I(1) and XIII of the GATT 1994, the Community did not intend to assume a particular obligation in the context of the WTO, capable of justifying an exception to the principle that WTO rules cannot be relied upon before the Community courts and enabling the Community courts to review the legality of Regulation No 1637/98 and the regulations adopted to implement it in the light of those rules (see, to this effect, Van Parys , paragraphs 41 and 52).

16 As regards the first argument, it must be borne in mind that, according to the scheme of Regulation No 2176/84, the purpose of constructing the normal value is to determine the selling price of a product as it would be if that product were sold in its country of origin or in the exporting country . Consequently, it is the expenses relating to sales on the domestic market which must be taken into account .

14 It is settled case-law that, in the interests of legal certainty and ease of verification, the decisive criterion for the customs classification of goods must generally be their objective characteristics and properties, as defined by the wording of the headings of the Combined Nomenclature and the notes to the sections or chapters (Case C-164/95 Fábrica de Queijo Eru Portuguesa v Alfândega de Lisboa [1997] ECR I-3441, paragraph 13). There are also explanatory notes drawn up, so far as the Combined Nomenclature is concerned, by the European Commission, which may be an important aid to the interpretation of the scope of the various tariff headings but do not have legally binding force (Joined Cases C-106/94 and C-139/94 Colin and Dupré [1995] ECR I-4759, paragraph 21, and Case C-201/96 LTM [1997] ECR I-0000, paragraph 17).

39. In the light of all of the foregoing, the answer to the question referred is that Article 3(1) of the Regulation must be interpreted as meaning that the courts of the Member State within the territory of which insolvency proceedings have been opened have jurisdiction to hear and determine an action to set a transaction aside by virtue of insolvency that is brought against a person whose place of residence is not within the territory of a Member State. Costs