英语论文网

composed of: R. Lecourt, President, A. M. Donner, M. Sørensen, Presidents of Chambers, R. Monaco, J. Mertens de Wilmars, P. Pescatore, H. Kutscher, C. Ó Dálaigh, A. J. Mackenzie Stuart (Rapporteur), Judges,

Advocate-General: A. Trabucchi
Registrar: A. Van Houtte

gives the following

JUDGMENT

Facts

The Judgment making the reference and the written observations submitted in pursuance of Article 20 of the Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EEC may be summarized as follows:

1. According to the Belgian Law of 18 April 1927, recognition of designations of origin is subject to a declaration to the Belgian Government by the Government concerned that such designations of origin are officially and definitively adopted.

Article 1 of the Royal Decree No 57 of 2 December 1934 provides that it is prohibited, on pain of penal sanctions, to import, sell, display for sale, have possession of or transport for the purposes of sale or delivery, spirits bearing a designation of origin duly adopted by the Belgian Government when such spirits are not accompanied by any official document certifying their right to such designation.

The designation of origin ‘Scotch whisky’ has been duly adopted by the Belgian Government.

2. In 1970, Gustave Dassonville, a wholesaler in business in France, and his son Benoît Dassonville, who manages a branch of his father’s business in Belgium, imported into Belgium ‘Scotch whisky’ under the brand names ‘Johnnie Walker’ and ‘Vat 69’, which Gustave Dassonville had purchased from the French importers and distributors of these two brands of whisky.

On the bottles, the Dassonvilles affixed, with a view to their sale in Belgium, labels bearing in particular the printed words ‘British Customs Certificate of Origin’, followed by a hand-written note of the number and date of the French excise bond on the permit register. This excise bond constituted the official document which, according to French rules, had to accompany a product bearing a designation of origin. France does not require a certificate of origin for ‘Scotch whisky’.

Although the goods were duly imported into Belgium on the basis of the French documents required and cleared for customs purposes as ‘Community goods’, the Belgian authorities considered that these documents did not properly satisfy the objective envisaged by the Royal Decree No 57 of 1934.

3. Following this importation, the Public Prosecutor instituted proceedings against the Dassonvilles before a court of summary jurisdiction. It is alleged that, between the dates of 1 and 31 December 1970, they:

— committed forgeries or assisted therein in affixing to the bottles the aforementioned labels, with fraudulent intent to induce belief that they were in possession, quod non, of an official document certifying the origin of the whisky, and made use of forged documents;

— contravened Articles 1 and 4 of the Royal Decree No 57 of 20 December 1934 by knowingly importing, selling, displaying for sale, holding in their possession or transporting for the purposes of sale and delivery, whisky bearing a designation duly adopted by the Belgian Government without causing the whisky to be accompanied b本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。