Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Approximation of laws - Procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations - Technical regulations within the meaning of Directive 83/189 - Definition - National rules requiring specific distinctive signs to be affixed to products subject to a tax on account of environmental damage - Included

(Council Directive 83/189, Art. 1)

Summary

An obligation to affix specific distinctive signs to products which are subject to a tax levied on them on account of the environmental damage which they are deemed to cause constitutes a technical specification within the meaning of Directive 83/189 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations, as amended by Directive 88/182, and the national enactment introducing it is a technical regulation within the meaning of the same Directive.

The fact that a national measure was adopted in order to protect the environment or that it does not implement a technical standard which may itself constitute a barrier to free movement does not mean that the measure in question cannot be a technical regulation within the meaning of Directive 83/189.

The marking requirement in issue, because it constitutes a de jure technical regulation in that its observance is compulsory in the case of marketing of the product concerned and is intended to inform the public of, inter alia, the effects of the products on the environment, can in no way be regarded as exclusively a fiscal accompanying measure and as therefore constituting a requirement linked to a fiscal measure for the purposes of the third indent of the second subparagraph of Article 1(9) of Directive 83/189, as amended by Directive 94/10.