Brussels, 12/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - Europe is doing the right thing by making it an obligation to market only vegetable seed for which varieties have been included in the official catalogues, all the more as it provides for derogations to be made for “old varieties”, the EU Court of Justice ruled on Thursday 12 July.
Authorising the sale of catalogue-accepted seeds allows the productivity of seed crops to be improved, the Court states in a judgment long-awaited by European farmers, against a backdrop of litigation between the seed industry and defenders of “old varieties” of seed that are not included in the official catalogues.
At the same time, European law allows exemptions for old varieties, not included in the catalogues, in order to ensure the genetic conservation of those plants, the Court states. It did not take on board the opinion of the advocate general, who proposed to cancel the obligation of including marketed seed in the catalogues.
The “tribunal de grande instance de Nancy” (Nancy Regional Court, France) had referred a question to the CJEU regarding the validity of two European directives on the marketing of vegetable seeds, in litigation between a non-profit making association, Kokopelli, and a seed group, Graines Baumaux. The latter accused Kokopelli of unfair competition, as the association was selling old seed or collectors' seed to amateur gardeners - seeds that were identical or similar to its own products but not appearing in the official catalogues.
Without ruling on the substance of the case between the association and the seed group, the Court of Justice finds that “the primary objective of the rules relating to the acceptance of vegetable seed is to improve productivity in vegetable cultivation in the EU”, and to ensure that all seed varieties marketed in the EU meet the same requirements. Furthermore, the Court observes that the “directives at issue take into account the economic interests of traders, such as Kokopelli, who offer for sale 'old varieties' that do not satisfy the conditions for inclusion in the official catalogues, in that those directives do not rule out the marketing of such varieties”. The marketing of old varieties is subject to geographical, quantitative and packaging restrictions to make the law more flexible while avoiding the appearance of a parallel seed market, which could hamper the market for catalogue seed varieties, the Luxembourg judges state. The Court does not say whether Kokopelli complied with the restrictions. By judgment of 14 January 2008, the court of first instance in Nancy had ruled that Kokopelli was to pay damages for having marketed 233 seeds similar to those marketed by Graines Baumaux. (LC/transl.jl)