ECJ Reference for a preliminary ruling: High Court of Justice (England and Wales), Queen’s Bench Division (Crown Office) – United Kingdom. Common agricultural policy – Articles 32 EC to 38 EC – Regulation (EEC) No 804/68 – Common organisation of the market in milk and milk products – Target price for milk – Regulation No 26 – Application of certain competition rules to the production of and trade in agricultural products – Whether Member States may apply national competition rules to milk producers who choose to organise themselves into cooperatives and hold market power.
The claimants asserted that the Respondents had sought to interfere wrongfully in their commercial activities insofar as they sought to create vertical integration of their market, ading new products to their existing ones.
Held: The existence of an EC community organisation of a particular economic sector, in this case the market for milk products, did not preclude a national authority involving itself in the regulation of that sector within its boundary provided it took no step which might undermine or create exceptions to that common organisation. The Court may refuse to rule on a question referred for a preliminary ruling by a national court only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of Community law that is sought bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose, where the problem is hypothetical, or where the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it.
Citations:
C-137/00, Times 25-Sep-2003, [2003] EUECJ C-137/00
Links:
Jurisdiction:
European
Agriculture
Updated: 03 June 2022; Ref: scu.186312