Report for the Hearing delivered in Case 160/86
I — Facts and procedure
1. The contents of the French legislation concerning fixed prices for books (Law No 81-766 of 10 August 1981), as amended following the judgment of the Court of 10 January 1985 (Gase 229/83 Association des centres Edouard Ledere and Others v Sari ‘Au blé vert’ and Others [1985] ECR 1) by Law No 85-500 of 13 May 1985, was set out in the Report for the Hearing in Case 355/85 Driancourt v Cognet, annexed to the judgment of the Court of 23 October 1986 in that case. Reference is made to that report.
2. Jacques Verbrugge, manager of the ‘Continent’ supermarket in Reims, is being prosecuted for an infringement of the abovementioned legislation. It is common ground that in the shop of which he was in charge, books were offered for sale with a discount of more than 5% on the price fixed by the publisher, contrary to that legislation. The tribunal de police, Reims, before which the proceedings were brought, considered that it was necessary to verify whether the provisions of the French legislation in question were compatible with the EEC Treaty since their effect was to place at a disadvantage books published and marketed in France without having been exported to the extent that such books were in free competition with copies of the same book which had been exported and re-imported. Therefore, by judgment of 16 June 1986, the tribunal de police stayed proceedings and referred the following question to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling:
‘Do the Community law principles of equality and nondiscrimination to be found in the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community prohibit the enactment of legislation in a Member State creating in a single sector, namely the book trade, for identical or similar products a dual system of prices consisting, on the one hand, of fixed prices which may not be reduced by more than 5% for books published and sold within the Member State without crossing an internal Community border during the marketing chain and, on the other hand, of uncontrolled prices for, in particular, books published in France and re-imported from another Member State?’
3. The order for reference was received at the Court Registry on 1 July 1986. Pursuant to Article 20 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Economic Community, written observations were submitted by Mr Verbrugge, represented by Philippe André Lefèbvre, of the Meaux Bar, and by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by Daniel Jacob, a member of its Legal Department. The tribunal de police, Reims, was informed by the Court of the judgment of 23 October 1986 in Case 355/85 (Cognet, [1986] ECR 3231) and indicated that its reference for a preliminary ruling was not withdrawn. Upon hearing the report of the Judge-Rapporteur and the views of the Advocate General, the Court, by decision of 28 November 1986, decided to open the oral procedure without any preparatory inquiry and, pursuant to Article 95 (1) of the Rules of Procedure, assigned the case to the Third Chamber.
II — Written observations
1. Observations submitted by Mr Verbrugge
Mr Verbrugge refers to the judgment of the Court of 10 January 1985 (Case 229/83, cited above) in which the Court ruled on the interpretation of Article 30 of the EEC Treaty in regard to the national legislation in question. He considers that even after its amendment in 1985 that legislation constitutes an impediment to intra-Community trade prohibited by Article 30 of the Treaty by virtue of the fact that it permits the existence of a dual system of prices for books published in France according to whether or not the books have been in circulation in another Member State before their sale by book retailers in France. The effect of such a system is to abolish price competition at retail level and thus to give rise to discrimination contrary to Article 7 of the EEC Treaty between books published in France which have not been exported and those which have been exported and later re-imported.
2. Observations submitted by the Commission
The Commission submitted observations identical to those submitted in Case 355/85 Cognet cited above) and summarized in the Report for the Hearing in that case, to which reference is made.
U. Everling
Judge-Rapporteur
1 Language of the Case: French.