Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Preliminary rulings - Jurisdiction of the Court - Limits - Manifestly irrelevant question

(EC Treaty, Art. 177)

2 Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - Prejudicial to competition - Standard bank conditions imposed by a banking association on its members - Condition allowing banks to change their interest rates in contracts for current-account credit facilities - None

(EC Treaty, Art. 85(1))

3 Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - Effect on trade between Member States - Standard bank conditions imposed by a banking association on its members - Binding conditions regarding general guarantees and derogating from the general law - None

(EC Treaty, Art. 85(1))

4 Competition - Dominant position - Abuse - Standard bank conditions imposed by a banking association on its members - None

(EC Treaty, Art. 86)

Summary

1 In the context of the preliminary ruling procedure under Article 177 of the Treaty, it is solely for the national courts before which actions are brought, and which must bear the responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine in the light of the particular facts of each case both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable them to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which they submit to the Court. A request for a preliminary ruling may be rejected as inadmissible only where it is plain that the interpretation of Community law or the examination of the validity of a Community rule requested by the national court has no bearing on the actual facts or subject-matter of the case before it.

2 Standard bank conditions imposed by a banking association on its members, in so far as they enable banks, in contracts for the opening of current-account credit facilities, to change the interest rate at any time by reason of objective factors such as changes on the money market, and to do so by means of a notice displayed on their premises or in such manner as they consider most appropriate, do not have as their object or effect the restriction of competition within the meaning of Article 85(1) of the Treaty.

3 Standard bank conditions imposed by a banking association on its members in relation to general guarantees which must be provided for contracts for the opening of current-account credit facilities, and which derogate from the general law concerning guarantees, are not, taken as a whole, liable to affect trade between Member States within the meaning of Article 85(1) of the Treaty where it is established that the service in question involves economic activities which have a very limited impact on trade between Member States and that recourse to contracts containing conditions of that kind by the main customers of foreign banks is not a factor of decisive importance in the choice made by foreign banks as to whether or not to establish themselves in the country concerned.

4 The application of standard bank conditions imposed by a banking association on its members in contracts for the opening of current-account credit facilities does not constitute abuse of a dominant position within the meaning of Article 86 of the Treaty where it is established, first, that the change in the interest rate for credit facilities, allowed by those conditions, depends on objective factors such as changes on the money market, and, second, that the conditions relating to general guarantees which must be provided for such contracts and which derogate from the general law concerning guarantees are not liable appreciably to affect trade between Member States.