International Fruit Company and others v Commission of the European [1971] ECR 411

• Under a regulation the Community granted a certain number of licences to import fruit from outside the EU each week, leaving it to national agencies to inform commission of size of licences requested by each company, and the commission would then decide on the licences to grant to each imported.

• Plaintiffs, apple importers, appealed against a rejection of their request for licences.

• On the question of standing ECJ held that Plaintiffs’ complaints were admissible as they were concerned individually and directly as Article 230 requires. 

ECJ

The decisions on licensing must be regarded as a bunch of individual decisions taken by the Commission…which, though issued in the form of a regulation, each affects the legal position of one of the applicants for a licence.

• Because the decisions are really made by the commission (whereas national agencies merely compile data and have no discretion themselves) they affect each Plaintiff directly.