Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 13 February 2014 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Unabhängiger Verwaltungssenat des Landes Oberösterreich (Austria)) — Proceedings initiated by Susanne Sokoll-Seebacher

(Case C-367/12) (1)

(Freedom of establishment - Public health - Article 49 TFEU - Pharmacies - Adequate supply of medicinal products to the public - Operating authorisation - Territorial distribution of pharmacies - Establishment of limits essentially based on a demographic criterion - Minimum distance between pharmacies)

2014/C 93/13

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Unabhängiger Verwaltungssenat des Landes Oberösterreich

Parties to the main proceedings

Susanne Sokoll-Seebacher

Third party: Agnes Hemetsberger, successor to Susanna Zehetner

Re:

Request for a preliminary ruling — Unabhängiger Verwaltungssenat des Landes Oberösterreich — Interpretation of Article 49 TFEU and Articles 16 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Member State's rules which make the award of a concession to operate a pharmacy subject to an assessment of the needs of the market based on a number of complex and almost unforeseeable criteria.

Operative part of the judgment

Article 49 TFEU, in particular the requirement that the desired objective be achieved in a consistent manner, must be interpreted as precluding legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which lays down, as an essential criterion for determining whether a need for the establishment of a new pharmacy exists, a rigid limit on the ‘people remaining to be served’, where the competent authorities cannot depart from that limit to take account of particular local geographical conditions.

(1)  OJ C 331, 27.10.2012.