Luxembourg, 20/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - During this week the European Court of Justice ruled in the following cases:
- Minimum price of Greek cigarettes. Greece is condemned by the sixth chamber, chaired by Jean-Pierre Puissochet, for having maintained the minimum retail sales price of cigarettes. It rejects Athens' argument whereby the fixing of a minimum price was needed to discourage tobacco consumption.
- Aid to the region of Sardinia. The sixth chamber chaired by Claus Gulmann cancels the decision by the European Commission, which declared as unlawful public aid for nearly 10 billion lira for the acquisition of a passenger transport ship. It reproaches the Commission for having motivated its decision in an insufficient and mistaken way.
Roquette Frères. The first chamber, chaired by Melchior Wathelet, tackled export refunds of processed products likely to re-enter the EU. The Court of Appeal in Nancy (France) will use this ruling to settle the dispute that opposes Roquette Frères to the "Office national interprofessionnel des céréales" concerning glucose syrup exported into Austria in 1990 (when it was not part of the Union).
- Peacock. The fifth chamber that Melchior Whatelet chaired added that the network cards for PCs that the Peacock company had imported in Germany between 1990 and 1995 should be classified in the tariff position N°8471. German customs challenged this classification favoured by Peacock, which leads to lower customs duties.
- Hans Sommer. The fifth chamber the Davis Edward chaired answered questions of interpretation over the customs regulations, which had been asked of it by the Breme Financial Tribunal over the importing of honey from Russia.
- Giuseppe Busolin. The first chamber confirmed the validity of the agricultural regulations of 1987 and 1994 on the obligatory distillation of table wine, on request of the Pretore de Trevise. A wine producer from the Venetian region had raised the illegality of the Community regulation, which had forced the Italian distributors to distil table wine during the 1993/1994 harvest year.