Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Applications for interim measures ° Conditions for admissibility ° Admissibility of the main application ° Irrelevant ° Limits

(EEC Treaty, Arts 185 and 186; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(2))

2. Applications for interim measures ° Suspension of operation ° Suspension of operation of a decision authorizing a concentration between undertakings and interim measures requested by bodies representing workers ° Conditions for granting ° Serious and irreparable damage ° Balancing of all the interests involved ° No risk of damage being suffered by workers such as to justify intervention by the judge hearing the application for interim measures

(EEC Treaty, Arts 185 and 186; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 104(2); Council Regulation No 4064/89; Council Directive 77/187, Arts 3 and 4)

Summary

1. If, in proceedings for interim measures, it is claimed that the application is manifestly inadmissible, it is for the judge hearing the application for interim measures to establish that the application reveals prima facie grounds for concluding that there is a certain probability that it is admissible.

2. Where suspension of the operation of a Commission decision authorizing, under Regulation No 4064/89, a concentration between undertakings, sought by the bodies representing the workforce of one of them, would amount to suspending the authorization given throughout the course of the proceedings before the Court and therefore to upset the functioning of the undertakings concerned, and where the grant of the interim measures applied for in the alternative would prolong the existence of a dominant position liable to entail irreversible repercussions on competition in the sector concerned, which the conditions and obligations imposed by the decision are specifically intended to bring to an end, it is incumbent on the judge hearing the application for interim measures to balance all the interests involved. Accordingly, account must be taken not only of the applicants' interests and of the Commission' s interest in restoring effective competition but also of the interests of third parties, in particular the undertakings concerned, in order to obviate both the creation of an irreversible situation and serious and irreparable damage to any of the parties to the proceedings or to a third party or to the public interest.

In such circumstances, the grant of the measures applied for can be justified only if it appears that, without them, the applicants would be exposed to a situation liable to endanger their future.

In the present case, the contested decision cannot in principle have repercussions on the rights of the employees of the undertakings concerned or expose them to the risk of a loss such as to justify intervention by the judge hearing the application for interim measures. Quite apart from the fact that the concentration authorized is not accompanied by any dismissals, Regulation No 4064/89 does not in any way undermine the collective rights of the workforce, and, by virtue of Articles 3 and 4 of Directive 77/187 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of undertakings, the transferor' s rights and obligations under a contract of employment or an employment relationship are transferred to the transferee.