Luxembourg, 25/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a Munoz case, the European Court of Justice issued a ruling, important say experts as it will enable individuals and companies to haul a competitor before a civil court if the latter does not respect the provisions of a Community regulation. In this case, it was a question of quality standards for varieties of table grapes, branded by the Spanish firm Munoz.
The company Munoz and its parent company Fruitocola, producers of grapes in Spain, that they sell in the United Kingdom, were unhappy because one of their competitors, the British importer Frumar, subsidiary of the company Redbridge, sold table grapes under another name than the one that should have been theirs according to Community legislation.
The Spanish companies first turned to the Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate (HMI) that did not follow up the complaint.
They then turned to the High Court of Justice (England and Wales) before which they brought a case against Frumar and Redridge, accusing them of having infringed the provisions of the 1996 legislation on the quality standards for table grapes.
The facts turned out to be true; Frumar did not dispute that it was in the wrong, which the High Court noted. But for the British Court the question was something else: the Community legislation did not give Munoz and Fruiticola the right to bring a civil action against their competitor, it explained.
The Court of Appeal (Civil division) did not agree on this score. It considered that the High Court had committed an error of law and, before ruling, turned to the European Court of Justice for confirmation.
The Court's response: an economic operator must be able to demand that a competitor respect Community legislation if we want the latter to be effective. It adds that "actions brought before the national courts by competing operators are particularly suited to contributing substantially to ensuring fair trading and transparency of markets in the Community".
Worth noting that this legal proceeding against a competitor is possible for all types of European legislation on condition, however, that the provisions invoked are sufficiently precise and do not demand an implementing text by the national authorities. In other words, the legislation needs to have "direct effect", as legal experts say.
This relatively short ruling - a few paragraphs - now provides "citizens" with this possibility of defending themselves against competition before a national court. A ruling that is issued two months after the "Pequenos Agricutores" ruling in which the European Court of Justice had stopped the attempts of Advocate General Jacob in his tracks and the Court of First Instance (see EUROPE of 5/6 May 2002, p.16 and 11 May, p.15) of facilitating the conditions for individuals and companies to access the European Court (see EUROPE of 26 July, p.15).