Free movement of goods and services Flashcards
Article 26 TFEU - free movement of goods
Defines the internal market
an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the Treaties’. This definition identifies the four freedoms and shows that the free movement of goods is a core EU principle
Tariff barriers to trade - Free movement of goods
import or export restrictions involving direct payments of money. They comprise customs duties and charges having equivalent effect to customs duties. They are prohibited by **article 30 TFEU **
Non-tariff barriers to trade - free movement of goods
these are import or export restrictions which do not involve direct payments of money, but comprise quantitative restrictions and all measures having equivalent effect. Both are prohibited by Article 34 TFEU (relating to imports) and Article 35 TFEU (relating to exports). Most of the case law concerns barriers to imports.
Quantitive restrictions - free movement of goods
‘measures which amount to a total or partial restraint of … imports, exports or goods in transit’, in other words import (or export) quotas and bans. A quota is a ‘partial restraint’ as it places a limit on the quantity of particular goods that can be imported. A ban is a ‘total restraint’ as it blocks the import of particular goods altogether. **Article 34 prohibits quantitative restrictions on imports. **
Measures having equivalent to quantitative restrictions (MEQRs) - free movement of goods
They take many different forms, including health and safety requirements, packaging requirements, and requirements relating to the composition or marketing of goods. MEQR’ was defined in Dassonville, in what has become known as the Dassonville formula Directive 70/50 (now no longer formally applicable but still referred to) provides guidance on the scope of an ‘MEQR’.
Dassonville [1974] - free movement of goods
Defined an MEQR - ‘all trading rules enacted by MS which are capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, intra community trade’.
facts:
Traders who had imported Scotch Whiskey from France into Belgium were prosecuted in Belgium for infringement for national legislation requiring imported goods bearing a designation of origin to be accompanied by a certificate of origin issued by the state of origin. The traders claimed that the requirement was an MEQR. Applying the definition above, the Court held that the Belgian requirement was an MEQR and a breach of Art 34
Directive 50/70
The directive identifies two categories of MEQRs:
* ‘Distinctly applicable measures’ – Measures that do not apply equally to domestic and imported products (art 2). They are called distinctly applicable measures because they make a distinction between the imported and the domestic products
* ‘Indistinctly applicable measures’ – measures that make no distinction between the domestic and imported products
directive was a transitional measure, which has now expired, but it still gives useful guidance on the scope of MEQR.
