Ministere Public v Andre Gauchard: ECJ 8 Dec 1987

ECJ Preliminary Questions – Freedom of establishment – Prior authorisation for the operation of a retail outlet.
1. Although the court has no jurisdiction under article 177 of the treaty to apply a rule of community law to a particular case and thus to judge a provision of national law by reference to such a rule it may, in the framework of the judicial cooperation provided for by that article and on the basis of the material presented to it, provide a national court with an interpretation of community law which may be useful to it in assessing the effects of that provision.
where the question asked may be understood as requesting an interpretation of community law but does not state which provision or provisions of community law are in issue, the court must extract from all the factors provided by the national court, and in particular from the statement of grounds contained in the reference, the elements of community law requiring an interpretation, having regard to the subject-matter of the dispute.
2. Article 52 of the eec treaty and council directives 68/363/eec and 68/364/eec implementing article 52 in the field of activities of self-employed persons in retail trade do not apply to situations which are purely internal to a member state, such as that of a national of a member state who has never resided or worked in any other member state.

Citations:

R-20/87, [1987] EUECJ R-20/87

Links:

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Updated: 21 June 2022; Ref: scu.215547