Luxembourg, 24/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - In its judgment published on Thursday 24 May in case T-151/01 and T-289/01, the Court of First Instance upheld the Commission decisions requiring the German recycling services provider Duales System Deutschland (DSD) to open the market for these services in Germany to a greater extent.
German legislation on packaging and waste (“Verordnung über die Vermeiding von Verpackungsabfällen” of 12 June 2001) requires packaging producers either to put in place a means of collecting the packaging after use, or to have collection carried out by a third party. DSD is the main third party supplier of these services in all the Länder of the Federal Republic, through its iconic “der Grüne Punkt” (Green Point) programme. In 2001, two Commission decisions sought to restrict the effect of this dominant position. In the first place, decision 2001/463/EC prevented DSD from charging the full price for the use of the “green point” logo by packaging producers, where collection was carried out by an organisation other than DSD or one of its sub-contractors. Then, decision 2001/837/EC authorised general agreements between DSD and its collection agents only on condition that these agents were able to conclude other agreements with competitors of DSD, something that had been denied them in the original contracts. According to the Commission, these measures had the desired effect of reducing costs to consumers from 2001, without having a negative effect on the capacity of the system to reduce the amount of waste and protect the environment.
These two Commission decisions were challenged by DSD, but they have largely been upheld by the above-mentioned judgements. The Commission welcomed the rulings in a press release, in which it notes that exclusive agreements represented a fortiori a barrier for competitors' wishing to enter the market. DSD says, however, that the ruling allows it to change a “proportionate” sum for the use of the “Grüne Punkt” logo, even if there is no collection agreement. Thus satisfied, DSD says on its internet site that it does not intend to appeal. (cd)