Free Movement Of Goods 2 Non Fiscal Notes

EU Law: Free Movement of Goods 2 – Non-fiscal

Key points to learn

• Understand the prohibitions on quantitative restrictions, and on MEQRs under Art 34 TFEU (imports).

• Distinguish between distinctly applicable and indistinctly applicable MEQRs. (they have different defences).

• Understand the defences to Art 34 TFEU.

• Understand when selling arrangements fall outside Art 34.

Non-fiscal measures: key articles

• Article 34 deals with imports

• Article 35 deals with exports.

• Article 36: deals with one form of defence, derogations, justifying a restriction.

• What are non-fiscal barriers? Include: Bans; quotas; restrictions on sales; rules specifying physical characteristics of goods; even rules regulation promotion of goods.

Who is bound by these articles?

• Public Bodies: The State is bound by Articles 34 & 35. So typical State bodies (exec, legislature , judiciary).

• But also, for Art 34, quasi-Public bodies : R v Royal Pharmaceutical Society of GB, ex p. API: this was held to be bound by Article 34, a quasi-public body, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. The body responsible for regulating the pharmaceutical profession in the UK. So measures adopted by professional bodies, on which a MS has conferred regulatory powers, may fall under Art 34.

• Purely private bodies and individuals remain outside the Article, but 2 points:

  • Commission v Ireland (‘Buy Irish’): MSs cannot circumvent their obligations under Art 34 simply by relying on a private company. In this case, the Irish gov had established a company called Irish Goods Council to promote Irish goods launched by the Irish gov. The gov established the company, appointed its management, granted it public subsidies, defines its aim. EC: Irish gov could not rely on the fact the campaign was conducted by a private company. Campaign was in breach of Art 34 (as influenced traders’ choice).

  • Commission v France (‘Spanish strawberries’): MS will breach Art 34 where it has failed to take necessary & appropriate measures to prevent the free movement of goods being obstructed by private individuals. This case: ECJ found that, for over a decade, French authorities had failed to take adequate measures to prevent certain groups of French farmers engaging in violent campaigns directed at agricultural products from other MSs, eg strawberries from Spain, tomatoes from Belgium. Eg attacking lories, threatening wholesalers etc.

Article 34 TFEU

• All article 34 actually says: “Quantitative restrictions on imports and all measures having equivalent effect shall be prohibited between Member States.”

• Breaks down into 2 prohibits:

  • 1. Quantitative Restrictions

  • 2. Measures Having Equivalent Effect (MEQRs).

1. Quantitative Restrictions

• Defined in Geddo:

• Geddo: measures which amount to a ‘ ... a total or partial restraint ... of imports, exports or goods in transit’.

• What does this actually mean? It’s a restriction on the quantity of goods that can be imported into the State. It’s about how many units you can import into the state. The ultimate quantitative restriction would be a ban: you can import no units at all. Or quotas: a set number that can be imported. Ban or quota.

  • Can be a ban: R v Henn & Darby: Ban on importation of pornographic material into UK.

  • Can be a quota: International Fruit. A licencing system that only allows importers to import a specific quantity of a product.

• A QR causes the most harm to free movement—can only be lawful if one of the derogations in Art 36, an exhaustive list.

2. MEQRs

• Egs of MEQRs: national rules that regulate the physical requirements that a product has to satisfy, eg shape or packaing, before it may be sold.

• 2 sources to consider: 1. Directive 70/50; 2. ECJ definition in Procureur du Roi v Dassonville.

• 1. Directive 70/50 (only applies to pre-EEC Treaty measures), EEC Treaty came into force in 1958:

  • Only applies to national measures in place at the time the EEC Treaty was signed (Rome, 1957).

  • Creates a distinction between 2 types of measures:

  • 1. Distinctly applicable MEQRs, Article 2: measures which do not apply equally to domestic and imported goods. They discriminate against imports (eg, Article 2 Directive 70/50—national rules that demand higher standards of imported than domestic goods).

  • 2. Indistinctly applicable MEQRs, Article 3: measures which apply equally to domestic and imported goods.

  • Temporal limitation built into the Directive: only applies to pre-EEC treaty measures. So doesn’t apply to all the measures enacted after EEC treaty date (1957). Those measures would have to be dealt with by Article 34 itself.

• So given temporal limits to above, ECJ had to come up with its own definition of MEQRs, in Dassonville.

• 2. Dassonville formula---ECJ definition in Dassonville (Procureur du Roi v Dassonville [1974]): ‘All trading rules enacted by MS which are capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, intra-Community trade’ are to be considered as MEQRs.

  • VERY WIDE DEFINITION, includes even ‘potentially’.

  • It does not define MEQRs in terms of distinct or indistinct applicability. Simply requires that the trading rule must be capable of hindering trade between MSs to be an MEQR.

  • Applies to indistinctly applicable measures (Cassis de Dijon)—Dassonville definition obviously caught distinctly applicable measures; but was not initially clear whether ECJ would consider indistinctly applicable measures as capable of hindering trade. This was settled in Rewe-Zentral AG v Bundesmonopolverwaltung (1979) (‘Cassis de Dijon’)—an indistinctly applicable measure (relating to alcohol content) was an MEQR prohibited by Art 34.

  • So the distinctly applicable/indistinctly applicable distinction remains important, because of the different defences for each category (see below).

• NB, only ‘potential’: the Dassonville formula specifies that the hindrance to trade can be indirect and/or merely potential. Hence ECJ made clear in Buy Irish that there is no need for trade between MSs to have actually...

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