61994B0115

1 Procedure - Costs - Taxation - Matters to be taken into consideration

(Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 91)

2 Procedure - Costs - Taxation - Recoverable costs - Meaning - Matters to be taken into consideration

(Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 91)

1 The Community judicature is not empowered to tax the fees payable by the parties to their own lawyers but it may determine the amount of those fees which may be recovered from the party ordered to pay the costs. It follows that the Court is not obliged to take account of any national scales of lawyers' fees or any agreement in that regard.

Since there are no Community provisions laying down fee-scales, the Court must make an unfettered assessment of the facts of the case, taking into account the purpose and nature of the proceedings and their significance from the point of view of Community law, as well as the difficulties presented by the case, the amount of work generated by the dispute for the agents and advisers involved and the financial interests which the parties had in the proceedings.

2 The significance that a case may have from the point of view of Community law because of the new and important questions of law and the complex questions of fact which it raises may justify high fees and the fact that one of the parties was represented by a number of lawyers. Since the Court, when fixing the recoverable costs, takes account of all the circumstances of the case up to the date of adjudication, there is no need to give a ruling on the costs incurred by the parties in relation to the taxation proceedings.