C-68/85 T Port v Bundesanstalt etc [1996] ECR I-6065

• Under a regulation the commission had the power (and sometimes had to) to increase the import quotas allocated to a company based on hardship.

• Because of the way the quotas were calculated, Plaintiff would get an unnaturally low level of import quotas and argued that, while the Commission failed to decide the matter/intervene, the national court had the power to suspend the regulation’s application to that company and give it a higher quota level.

• ECJ held that the national courts did not have the power to grant interim relief until such time as the Commission had dealt with cases of hardship.

  • Only the Community judicature could ensure judicial protection. 

ECJ

• In contrast to Zuckerfabrik and Atlanta, the present case concerned interim protection of traders in a situation where, by virtue of a Community regulation, the existence and scope of the traders' rights had still to be established by a Commission measure which the Commission had not yet adopted.

• There was no treaty article allowing the national courts to refer to the ECJ the question of whether a community institution had failed to act and hence there was no ground for applying an interim measure until the ECJ had acted. 

RELATED CASES

• 143/88 & 92/89 Zuckerfabrik Suderdithmarschen

• C-465/93 Atlanta