Luxembourg, 07/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Last week the Court of Justice chose to publish a press release on the following cases on its website (http://www.curia.eu.int ): Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic. The Court of Justice has ruled that the Italian law of 20 July 2001 provide for suspension of voting rights attaching to holdings in excess of 2% of the capital of undertakings in the electricity and gas sectors, is incompatible with European law. The press release explains that suspending voting rights of investors in undertakings in the electricity and gas sectors infringes the principle of free movement of capital. The advocate General Juliane Kokott has previously written that, “underpinning this case is the fear created by the possibility of French companies Electricité de France (EDF) and Gaz de France (GDF), still dominated by the French, penetrating the Italian market.
The Hanner Judgement: the Court declared that the Swedish medicine wholesalers is contrary to Community law, insofar as it discriminates against medicines from other Member States. In the absence of a system that excludes any discrimination against imported medicines, the sales monopoly is unjustified, it ruled.
Syfait Judgement: European judges have said that they do not have the competency to deal with questions posed by the Greek competition committee as this committee does not meet the independence criterion required in the EC treaty on qualifying as the “jurisdictional” entity. Only genuine jurisdictions, or those assimilated, for example, by the Court, can pose questions of interpretation of Community law at the European Court. The Greek competition committee does not meet these criteria, particularly given its dependency on the European Commission with which works in close collaboration. The case the Hellenic body was seeking clarification for, involved parallel imports of medicines and the litigation which arose between Syfait medicine wholesalers and the GlaxoSmithkline company.
Mediakabel BV Judgement: the Court has indicated that a “pay per view” system in the Netherlands, which broadcasts public television programmes and which is not commissioned on individual requests, should be categorised as a televisual-radio broadcaster and that this service provider has to reserve most of its broadcasting time to European programmes.
Commission Versus Germany: Advocate General Stix-Hackl has indicated that in German law on foreigners broadly respects Community legal provisions but that in certain cases the practice sought automatic expulsions, without taking into account personal difficulties and had a deterrent objective in breach of fundamental rights on family life. These expulsions were immediately declared applicable without examination of the urgent nature of the measure.
Crailsheimer Volksbank: Advocate General Léger has summed up in his conclusions on the case involving consumer protection in contracts negotiated outside commercial establishments, in the specific context of real estate management investments in Germany by individuals in the 1990s. He concludes that a real estate investment revoking a loans contract must immediately reimburse it but he is not obliged to pay interest rates above the market rate if he was not informed about his contract termination rights.