Category: European

Giordani v Commission: ECJ 27 Jun 1989

ECJ 1. Notification of the monthly salary statement has the effect of setting time running for the purpose of the time-limit for an action against an administrative decision where the existence of such a decision is clearly apparent from the statement.
This is the case where an official reinstated after the expiry of leave on personal grounds learns of the administration’ s decision as to his classification in step from his monthly salary statement when the decision reinstating him, which was notified to him, did not contain any information in that regard.
2. It is clear from Article 40(3 ) and the last sentence of Article 40(4)(d ) of the Staff Regulations that the classification of an official who is reinstated after the expiry of a period of leave on personal grounds is, in principle, the same as his classification at the time of the commencement of that leave, without the administration being under any obligation to take into consideration, when determining the official’ s classification in step, either the duration of the leave or the period between the expiry of that leave and the official’ s actual reinstatement.

Citations:

C-200/87, [1989] EUECJ C-200/87

Links:

Bailii

European

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134659

Frydendahl Pedersen v Commission (Rec 1988,P 4993) (Judgment): ECJ 22 Sep 1988

Europa If the Commission, to which a Member State has submitted a request for a decision that the repayment of import duties pursuant to Article 13 of Regulation No 1430/79 is justified, asks the Member State concerned to withdraw its request and to re-submit it at a later date in order to prevent its failure to take a decision within the four-month period laid down in the second paragraph of Article 5 of Regulation No 1575/80 from having the effect that, by virtue of Article 7 of that regulation, as amended by Regulation No 945/83, the application has to be granted by the national authorities, this constitutes a misuse of procedure . Consequently, the Commission’ s decision, which was not adopted within the four-month period which started to run from the date of the initial request, must be declared void because it was adopted on the basis of a procedure which was vitiated in its entirety.

Citations:

C-148/87, [1988] EUECJ C-148/87

Links:

Bailii

European

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134621

Nashua Corporation and Others v Commission and Council: ECJ 25 Jun 1987

ECJ It does not lie within the jurisdiction of the judge hearing an application for interim measures to allow a request for the suspension of the operation of a council regulation imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty when the action in the main proceedings, on to which the request is grafted, seeks the annulment of the commission’s refusal of a proposed undertaking on pricing. The two measures in question are different, as are the two institutions from which they emanate

Citations:

C-133/87, [1987] EUECJ C-133/87R

Links:

Bailii

Cited by:

See Also – Nashua Corporation and Others v Commission and Council ECJ 14-Mar-1990
ECJ 1. The rejection by the Commission of a proposed undertaking in the course of an anti-dumping proceeding is not a measure having binding legal effects of such a kind as to affect the interests of the traders . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134609

P Bork International A/S, in liquidation v Foreningen af Arbejdsledere I Danmark: ECJ 15 Jun 1988

ECJ Although it is true that, unless otherwise expressly provided, Directive 77/187 relating to the safeguarding of employees’ rights in the event of transfers of undertakings may be relied upon solely by workers whose contract of employment or employment relationship is in existence at the time of the transfer, and that the existence or otherwise of such a contract or relationship must be assessed on the basis of national law, it is still necessary to comply with the mandatory provisions of the directive concerning the protection of employees from dismissal as a result of the transfer.
Accordingly, the employees whose contract of employment or employment relationship was terminated with effect from a date prior to that of the transfer, contrary to Article 4 (1) of the directive, must be regarded as still in the employ of the undertaking on the date of the transfer, with the result, in particular, that the employer’ s obligations towards them are automatically transferred from the transferor to the transferee. In order to ascertain whether the employees were dismissed solely as a result of the transfer, it is necessary to take into consideration the objective circumstances in which the dismissal took place such as, in particular, the fact that it took effect on a date close to that of the transfer and that the employees in question were taken on again by the transferee.

Article 1(1) of Directive 77/187 is to be interpreted as meaning that the directive applies where, after giving notice bringing the lease to an end or upon termination thereof, the owner of an undertaking retakes possession of it and thereafter sells it to a third party who shortly afterwards brings it back into operation, which had ceased upon termination of the lease, with just over half of the staff that was employed in the undertaking by the former lessee, provided that the undertaking in question retains its identity.

Citations:

C-101/87, R-101/87, [1988] EUECJ R-101/87, [1989] IRLR 41

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Directive 77/187

Cited by:

Cited – Wilson and Others v St Helens Borough Council; Meade and Another v British Fuels Ltd HL 29-Oct-1998
The House faced two questions regarding the protection given by the Regulations: ‘whether the dismissed employee can compel the transferee to employ him or whether he is given the right to enforce as against the transferee such remedies under . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European, Employment

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134593

Lucas v Commission: ECJ 14 Jun 1988

ECJ In view of the respective aims of the second paragraph of Article 32 and Article 46 of the Staff Regulations, the classification in step of an official moving from one category to another must be based on the principles laid down in Article 46 and not on those laid down in the second paragraph of Article 32 . Article 32 is intended in particular to enable the appointing authority to take into account, albeit within rather strict limits, training and professional experience acquired before a Community official takes up his duties, whereas the purpose of Article 46 is to ensure the greatest possible continuity regarding his seniority and salary as his career develops, even when he moves from one category or service to another on the basis of a competition.
It is, however, justifiable to depart from the application of Article 46 when the change of category or service occurs shortly after the official’ s entry into the service of the Communities and when the application of that article on appointment to the new post would not allow account to be taken of the training and the specific professional experience acquired prior to recruitment.

Citations:

C-47/87, [1988] EUECJ C-47/87

Links:

Bailii

European

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134575

Thetford Corporation And Others v Fiamma Spa And Others: ECJ 30 Jun 1988

The court considered a reference to the European Court on assumed facts where the domestic court had not yet established those facts.
Europa In the present state of Community law, characterized by the absence of harmonization of the patents legislation of the Member States, and in the absence of international conventions in force providing to the contrary, Article 36 of the Treaty must be interpreted as not precluding the application of a Member State’s legislation which recognizes the principle of relative novelty and provides that a patent granted for an invention may not be declared invalid by reason only of the fact that the invention in question appears in a patent specification filed more than 50 years previously. Where national law normally provides for the issue of an injunction to prevent any infringement, that measure is justified under Article 36 in so far as it aims to preserve the actual substance of the patent right.

Citations:

C-35/87, R-35/87, [1988] EUECJ R-35/87, [1987] 3 CMLR 266

Links:

Bailii

Cited by:

Cited – Attridge Law (A Firm of Solicitors) v Coleman and Law EAT 20-Dec-2006
The claimant asserted associative disability discrimination. She was the carer for her disabled son.
Held: To succeed the claimant would have to show that associative discrimination was prohibited by the directive and that the 1995 Act could . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European, Litigation Practice, Intellectual Property

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134565

Commission v Denmark: ECJ 20 Sep 1988

Europa 1. In the absence of common rules relating to the marketing of the products in question, obstacles to free movement within the Community resulting from disparities between the national laws must be accepted in so far as such rules, applicable to domestic and imported products without distinction, may be recognized as being necessary in order to satisfy mandatory requirements recognized by Community law and are proportionate to the aim in view, in so far as they constitute a measure which least restricts the free movement of goods . Since the protection of the environment constitutes one of the Community’ s essential objectives, it is such a requirement.
2. The obligation imposed by national legislation on manufacturers and importers, as part of a system under which the marketing of beer and soft drinks is authorized only in re-usable containers, to establish a deposit-and-return system for empty containers must be regarded as necessary to achieve the objectives pursued in relation to the protection of the environment so that the resulting restrictions on the free movement of goods cannot be regarded as disproportionate. However, the requirement that foreign manufacturers must either use only containers approved by the national authorities, which may refuse approval even if a manufacturer is prepared to ensure that returned containers are re-used, or not market annually more than a certain volume of drinks in non-approved containers is to be regarded as disproportionate and therefore unacceptable since whilst the system of returnable non-approved containers does not ensure a maximum rate of re-use, unlike the system established for approved containers, it is capable of protecting the environment, especially as the quantity of beverages likely to be imported is limited in relation to total national consumption by reason of the restrictive effect of the requirement that containers should be returnable.

Citations:

C-302/86, [1988] EUECJ C-302/86

Links:

Bailii

Cited by:

Cited – Commission v Council (Police And Judicial Cooperation In Criminal Matters) ECJ 13-Sep-2005
The Commission sought anullment of Council Framework Decision 2003/80/JHA on the protection of the environment through criminal law. The framework decision laid down a number of environmental offences, in respect of which the Member States are . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134520

Cida v Council: ECJ 30 Jun 1988

1. Having regard to the rules laid down in Article 195 of the Treaty concerning the composition of the Economic and Social Committee, a trade union which, at national level, represents merely one of the constituent elements of one of the categories of economic and social activity referred to in Article 193 and not the whole of that category is not in a position requiring the Council to take account of it in adopting its decision on the composition of the Committee. It cannot therefore be considered to be individually concerned by that decision within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 173 of the Treaty.
On the other hand, a candidate put forward by a Member State and not appointed by the Council is directly and individually concerned by the said decision.
2. Adequate representation in the Economic and Social Committee of the various categories of economic and social activity, as required by the second subparagraph of Article 195(1) of the Treaty, must be ensured at Community level. The Council has a wide discretion in ensuring such representation on the basis of lists of candidates submitted to it by Member States particularly since, having regard to the limited number of seats, it is not possible for all the constituent elements of each category of economic and social activity to be represented by nationals of each of the Member States.
3. In the context of the procedure for appointing members of the Economic and Social Committee, governed by Articles 194 and 195 of the Treaty, the Council must assess the representative character of the candidates appearing on the national lists, without being bound by any distinction made by the Member States between candidates proposed as principal candidates and those proposed as alternative candidates, before appointing the members of the Economic and Social Committee in accordance with the criteria laid down in Article 195.
With regard to the mandatory consultations provided for in Article 195(2), the Council must consult the Commission on the choices which it intends to make on the basis of the national proposals and not on those proposals themselves.

Citations:

C-297/86, [1988] EUECJ C-297/86

Links:

Bailii

European

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134515

Pedersen v Commission (Rec 1987,P 3123) (Order): ECJ 8 Jul 1987

Europa An exclusive importer in a member state of products covered by anti-dumping duties who is not associated with the exporter and whose resale prices were not taken into account in the calculation of the dumping margin does not belong to the category of traders having a right to challenge the regulation imposing anti-dumping duties directly before the court by means of an action for annulment, even if the importer participated in the successive stages of the investigation which preceded the adoption of the regulation.

Citations:

C-301/86, [1987] EUECJ C-301/86

Links:

Bailii

European

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.134519

Ranocchia v ERCEA: ECFI 5 Feb 2018

Judgment – Research and technological development – Calls for proposals and related activities under the 2015 Work Program of the ERC – Framework Program for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) – Horizon 2020 – ERCEA Decision declaring it ineligible Applicant’s proposal – Project concerning the identification of mathematical algorithms to facilitate the reading and analysis of certain ancient manuscripts – Misuse of powers – Error of fact – Error of law – Manifest error of assessment

Citations:

ECLI: EU: T: 2018: 68, [2018] EUECJ T-208/16

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

European

European

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.604736

Ice Mountain Ibiza v EUIPO – Marbella Atlantic Ocean Club (Ocean Ibiza): ECFI 25 May 2016

ECJ (Judgment) Brand of the European Union – Opposition proceedings – trade mark of the figurative EU ibiza ocean – Earlier national figurative marks OC and OC ocean club ocean club Ibiza – Relative ground for refusal – Likelihood of confusion – Similarity of the signs – Article 8, paragraph 1 b) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009

Citations:

T-6/15, [2016] EUECJ T-6/15, ECLI: EU: T: 2016 310

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Regulation (EC) No 207/2009

Jurisdiction:

European

Intellectual Property

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.564882

Bund Fur Umwelt Und Naturschutz Deutschland eV v Bundesrepublik Deutschland: ECJ 1 Jul 2015

ECJ Judgment – Reference for a preliminary ruling – Environment – EU action in the field of water policy – Directive 2000/60/EC – Article 4(1) – Environmental objectives relating to surface waters – Deterioration of the status of a body of surface water – Project for the development of a navigable waterway – Obligation of the Member States not to authorise a project that may cause a deterioration of the status of a body of surface water – Decisive criteria for determining whether there is a deterioration of the status of a body of water

Judges:

V. Skouris, P

Citations:

C-461/13, [2015] EUECJ C-461/13, ECLI:EU:C:2015:433

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Directive 2000/60/EC

Jurisdiction:

European

Environment

Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.549987

Preston and Others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and Others; Fletcher and Others v Midland Bank plc: ECJ 16 May 2000

ECJ Social policy – Men and women – Equal pay – Membership of an occupational pension scheme – Part-time workers – Exclusion – National procedural rules – Principle of effectiveness – Principle of equivalence.

Citations:

[2001] 2 AC 415, C-78/98, [2000] IRLR 06, [2000] EUECJ C-78/98

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

European

Citing:

Reference From – Preston and Others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS and Others; Fletcher and Others v Midland Bank Plc HL 26-Feb-1998
‘Employment’ in context of a sex discrimination claim referred to a current employment contract even in context of there having been a series of repeated contracts of employment. The question was referred to the European Court of Justice. . .
See Also – Fletcher and others and Preston and others v Midland Bank Plc and Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust Secretary of State for Health and others EAT 24-Jun-1996
EAT Equal Pay Act – Addendum to principal judgment. Part timers’ claims for membership of pension schemes only made out of time.
EAT Equal Pay Act – (no sub-topic). . .
See Also – Preston and others v Wolverhampton Healthcare Trust Secretary of State for Health CA 13-Feb-1997
. .

Cited by:

Returned from ECJ – Preston and Others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and Others, Fletcher and Others v Midland Bank Plc (No 2) HL 8-Feb-2001
Part-time workers claimed that they had been unlawfully excluded from occupational pension schemes because membership was dependent on an employee working a minimum number of hours per week and that that was discriminatory because a considerably . .
Cited – North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust v Fox and Others CA 30-Jun-2010
The employer had altered existing employment contracts. The claimants having commenced discrimination claims then sought to add to the existing proceedings comparators from different job groups. The tribunal had been asked whether, given that this . .
At ECJ – Preston and others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and others EAT 3-Nov-2003
EAT Judge McMullen QC adopted a limited view of the scope of the new principle of stable employment set out at the ECJ and HL. He thought it was intended ‘to rescue employees who do not have a permanent job’; and . .
At ECJ – Bainbridge and others v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council EAT 23-Mar-2007
EAT Practice and Procedure – Compromise
Equal Pay Act – Work rated equivalent; Damages/Compensation
This case raises three issues, two of which are of particular significance in the field of equal . .
See Also – Preston and others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and Others (No 3) CA 7-Oct-2004
The claimants had had their employments transferred to another body under TUPE. They complained that their pension rights had been discriminatory. The employer appealed a finding that their claim had not been out of time.
Held: The effect of . .
See Also – Powerhouse Retail Ltd and others v Burroughs and others; Preston and others v Wolverhampton Healthcare NHS Trust and others (No 3) HL 8-Mar-2006
The appellants said they had been had been discriminated against on the grounds of their sex by the TUPE Regulations. Their discrimination cases had been dismissed as out of time.
Held: The employees’ appeals were dismissed: ‘A statute cannot . .
Cited – Birmingham City Council v Abdulla and Others SC 24-Oct-2012
Former employees wished to argue that they had been discriminated against whilst employed by the Council. Being out of time for Employment Tribunal Proceedings, they sought to bring their cases in the ordinary courts. The Council now appealed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Discrimination

Updated: 22 May 2022; Ref: scu.231720

Develop Dr Eisbein v Hautpzollamt Stuttgart-West: ECJ 16 Jun 1994

ECJ Whilst the customs tariff does indeed in certain cases contain references to manufacturing processes of goods, the preference is, in the interests of legal certainty and ease of verification, to have recourse to criteria for classification based on the objective characteristics of products, as defined in the wording of the headings and the notes to the sections or chapters which can be ascertained on the occasion of customs clearance. Consequently, the manufacturing processes of a product are decisive only when the tariff heading expressly so provides.
Consequently, the second sentence of Rule 2(a) of the Rules for the Interpretation of the Nomenclature of the Common Customs Tariff in Part I, Section I, A of the Annex to Regulation No 950/68 on the Common Customs Tariff, as amended by Regulation No 1/72, which, without defining the assembly operation, provides that for tariff classification purposes, an article imported unassembled or disassembled must be regarded as a complete article, must be interpreted as meaning that an article is to be considered to be imported unassembled or disassembled where the component parts, that is the parts which may be identified as components intended to make up the finished product, are all presented for customs clearance at the same time and no account is to be taken in that regard of the assembly technique or the complexity of the assembly method.
It is not possible to rely as against that interpretation on an Explanatory Note to the Nomenclature of the Customs Cooperation Council because those notes do not have legally binding force and must be disregarded if their content is not in accordance with the actual provisions of the Customs Cooperation Council and the meaning of those provisions would be altered if that note were taken into account.

Citations:

C-35/93, [1994] EUECJ C-35/93, [1994] ECR I-2655

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

European

Cited by:

Cited – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd v Customs and Excise ChD 27-Jul-2005
The appellants had imported Playstation computer games. They appealed refusal of a rebate of 50 million euros paid in VAT before a reclassification of the equipment so as to make it exempt from VAT.
Held: ‘The effect of the annulment of a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Customs and Excise

Updated: 22 May 2022; Ref: scu.161065