Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Actions for annulment – Natural or legal persons – Measures of direct and individual concern to them – Regulation amending the rules applicable to the protection of additional traditional terms designating wines – Action brought by certain Italian wine producers – Action brought by certain associations of Italian wine producers – Inadmissible

(Art. 230, fourth para., EC; Commission Regulation No 316/2004)

2. Actions for annulment – Natural or legal persons – Measures of direct and individual concern to them – Interpretation contra legem of the condition requiring individual concern – Not permissible

(Art. 230, fourth para., EC)

Summary

1. Regulation No 316/2004, amending Regulation No 753/2002 laying down certain rules for applying Regulation No 1493/1999 as regards the description, designation, presentation and protection of certain wine sector products – which amends, in particular, the rules applicable to the protection of additional traditional terms designating wines – constitutes a measure of general application within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 249 EC, since it applies to objectively defined situations and produces legal effects for categories of economic operators who satisfy a number of conditions defined in a general and abstract manner. It does not concern only Italian wine producers, but also produces its legal effects vis-à-vis an unknown number of producers from other Member States who currently use additional traditional terms and will do so in the future.

That regulation can be of individual concern to natural or legal persons only if it affects those persons by reason of certain attributes peculiar to them, or by reason of a factual situation which differentiates them from all other persons and distinguishes them individually in the same way as the addressee of a decision. That is not the position in the case of certain Italian wine producers permitted to use the traditional Italian terms specified, initially placed on List B of Annex III to Regulation No 753/2002; nor is it the position in the case of certain associations of Italian wine producers.

First, that regulation concerns the Italian producers in question only in their objective capacity as producers of quality wines produced in a specified region (quality wines p.s.r.). The existence of judicial protection for traditional terms which have been identified and placed on a closed list is not such as to differentiate the Italian producers from all the other Community producers of quality wines p.s.r. bearing additional traditional terms. By the same token, even if the measures laid down in the contested regulation are liable to have significant economic consequences for the applicants, the fact nevertheless remains that those measures will have similar consequences for the other quality wine p.s.r. producers in the Community. In any case, the fact that certain operators are economically more affected by a measure than their competitors is not sufficient for them to be regarded as individually concerned by that measure.

First, an association formed to promote the collective interests of a category of individuals cannot be regarded as individually concerned by a measure affecting the general interests of that category of individuals if they are not themselves individually affected. Secondly, although it is true that the existence of special circumstances, such as the participation of an association in a procedure leading to the adoption of an act within the meaning of Article 230 EC, may provide grounds for the admissibility of an action brought by an association whose members are not individually concerned by the contested act, in particular because its position as a negotiator has been affected by that measure, that is not the position in the case of the associations in question. Lastly, the associations in question cannot be regarded as individually concerned by the contested regulation on the ground that a legal provision confers on them a number of rights of a procedural nature.

(see paras 35-36, 38, 42-44, 48, 50-52)

2. Although, in the context of an action for annulment, the condition laid down in the fourth paragraph of Article 230 EC must be interpreted in the light of the principle of effective judicial protection by taking account of the various circumstances that may distinguish an applicant individually, such an interpretation cannot have the effect of setting aside that condition.

(see para. 56)