Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Competition - Undertakings to which Member States grant special or exclusive rights - Meaning - Situation where only `recognised dockers' are acknowledged as having the right to perform certain dock duties - Not covered

(EC Treaty, Arts 6 and 48 (now, after amendment, Arts 12 EC and 39 EC) and Arts 85, 86 and 90 (now Arts 81 EC, 82 EC and 86 EC))

Summary

$$Article 90(1) of the Treaty (now Article 86(1) EC), read in conjunction with the first paragraph of Article 6 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 12, first paragraph, EC) and Articles 85 and 86 thereof (now Articles 81 EC and 82 EC), must be interpreted as meaning that it does not confer on individuals the right to oppose the application of legislation of a Member State which requires them to have recourse, for the performance of dock work, exclusively to dockers recognised under that legislation and to pay those dockers remuneration far in excess of the wages of their own employees or the wages which they pay to other workers.

Article 90(1) of the Treaty, read in conjunction with any other provision of the Treaty, is applicable only to undertakings. Even taken collectively, the recognised dockers in a port area cannot be regarded as constituting an undertaking for the purposes of Community competition law, in so far as the employment relationship which they have with the undertakings for which they perform dock work is characterised by the fact that they perform the work in question for and under the direction of each of those undertakings, so that they must be regarded as `workers' within the meaning of Article 48 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 39 EC).