Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Actions for annulment - Natural or legal persons - Measures of direct and individual concern to them - Regulation on the entry of certain names in the Register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications - Action brought by a producer marketing products under a name entered who has objected to its registration to the national authorities - Inadmissible

(Art. 230, fourth para., EC; Council Regulation No 2081/92, Art. 7; Commission Regulation No 1338/2000)

Summary

$$An action for annulment brought by a producer of duck-derived products against Regulation No 1338/2000, supplementing the Annex to Regulation No 2400/96 on the entry of certain names in the Register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications provided for in Regulation No 2081/92, is inadmissible inasmuch as it registers, as a protected geographical indication the name Canard à foie gras du Sud-Ouest.

Although rules such as those at issue which, by virtue of their nature and scope, are of a legislative nature, may be of individual concern to natural or legal persons, that is not the case here. First, any other producer who is now, or may be in the future, in the same position as the applicant, is affected by the contested regulation in the same way as the applicant. Next, the fact that a legislative measure may have specific effects which differ according to the various persons to whom it applies is not such as to differentiate them in relation to all the other operators concerned where - as in this case - that measure is applied on the basis of an objectively determined situation. Lastly, the use of the geographical designation which the applicant cites is not the consequence of a similar specific right, acquired at national or Community level before the adoption of Regulation No 1338/2000 and adversely affected by the regulation.

Furthermore, the fact that the competent authorities in the Member State in which the applicant is established did not forward its statement of objections to the Commission is not reason enough for the application to be declared admissible. In that connection, under the scheme for registering objections established by Regulation 2081/92, the procedural safeguards afforded to individuals fall exclusively within the responsibility of the Member States and do not involve the exercise of any discretion by the Commission, so that no procedural safeguards have been established for individuals at Community level.

( see paras 34, 36-37, 40-44, 47, 53 )