Procureur du Roi v Benoît and Gustave Dassonville, usually referred to simply as Dassonville was a case in the European Court of Justice, in which a 'distinctly applicable measure of equivalent effect' to a quantitative restriction of trade in the European Union was held to exist on a scotch whisky imported from France.

Facts

In Belgium there was a rule preventing the sale of products such as scotch whisky, without a certificate of authenticity. The trader had purchased his whisky in France, where no such measure existed, therefore he made his own certificate of authenticity. The trader was accused of forging the certificate, and was held by the Belgian court to be in breach of the law. The trader argued that this represented a quantitative restriction on trade, which would be in breach of Article 28 EC of the Treaty of Rome

Treaty of Rome

The Treaty of Rome, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, was an international agreement that led to the founding of the European Economic Community on 1 January 1958. It was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany...

. The Belgian court therefore referred the case to the European Court of Justice

European Court of Justice

The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...

 as is permitted under Article 267 of the TFEU (at the time 234 EC).

Decision

The court held that the Belgian legislation requiring the certificate of authenticity represented a measure having equivalent effect of restricting trade, and was in breach of article 28 of the Treaty. The restriction meant that it was perfectly possible for a French seller of Scotch whisky to sell the whisky, whilst a short distance away in Belgium, a trader selling the same whisky would be subject to restrictions which would effectively create a restriction on their ability to compete with the French trader.

The court stated:

"All trading rules enacted by Member States which are capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, intra-Community trade are to be considered as measures having an effect equivalent to quantitative restrictions"

Horspool and Humphreys note that this decision could include a "huge" range of restrictions, and that the court has sought to limit the range of the Dassonville decision, in cases such as Cassis de Dijon

Cassis de Dijon (court case)

Rewe-Zentral AG v Bundesmonopolverwaltung für Branntwein , also known as the Cassis de Dijon case is a decision of the European Court of Justice , in which a regulation applying both to imports and to domestic goods that produces an effect equivalent to a quantitative import restriction was held...

, which was decided a few years later.

External links

• Decision of ECJ at Europa Website