SpA Alois Lageder and others v Amministrazione delle Finanze dello Stato.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Celex Number: 61991CC0031
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:1992:339
• Docket Number: C-31/91,C-44/91
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Procedure Type: Reference for a preliminary ruling
• Date: 15 September 1992

Important legal notice

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61991C0031

Opinion of Mr Advocate General Darmon delivered on 15 September 1992. - SpA Alois Lageder and others v Amministrazione delle Finanze dello Stato. - References for a preliminary ruling: Corte suprema di Cassazione - Italy. - Wine - Quality wines psr - "DOC and DOCG" designations - Provisional list - Monetary compensatory amounts - Mistake by the national authorities - Prescription - Protection of legitimate expectations. - Joined cases C-31/91 to C-44/91.

European Court reports 1993 Page I-01761

Opinion of the Advocate-General

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Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. By these questions the Corte Suprema di Cassazione (Supreme Court of Cassation) asks the Court to interpret Article 1 of Regulation (EEC) No 1311/73 of the Commission (1) in the sphere of wine and wine products and, more specifically, quality wines p.s.r., and, more generally, to consider in the light of the purpose of monetary compensatory amounts and the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations whether it is possible for national authorities several years later to recover compensatory amounts which they had omitted to collect.

2. The facts may be summarized as follows. Between June and August 1973 a number of Italian wine exporters ° including Alois Lageder SpA (hereinafter "Lageder") ° delivered quality wines to the Federal Republic of Germany. Accompanying documents of type VA(2) were drawn up by the laboratory for analysis and research of the Istituto Agrario Provinciale di S. Michele all' Adige for each shipment. Because these deliveries concerned quality wines p.s.r. they were not subject to the rules relating to monetary compensatory amounts. It was not until 1977 and 1978 that the Italian finance authorities first claimed from, and then ordered payment by, the wine establishments which had carried out those exports of the monetary compensatory amounts wrongly not collected, on the ground that the Istituto Agrario Provinciale di S. Michele ° which, meanwhile, was no longer authorized to exercise a power which had now devolved on the Ministry of Agriculture ° had on that occasion issued certificates in reliance on a provisional list of quality wines p.s.r. which had ceased to be valid on 22 May 1973.

3. Although Lageder' s arguments were accepted at first instance, the Corte d' Appello di Trento (Court of Appeal, Trento), in its judgment of 22 August 1987, upheld the argument put forward by the Italian authorities. The case came before the Corte Suprema di Cassazione, which referred three questions to the Court for a preliminary ruling. The essential purpose of those questions is:

° to determine whether Article 1 of Regulation No 1311/73 allows only wines designated "denominazione di origine controllata" (DOC) and "denominazione di origine controllata e garantita" (DOCG) to be included in the list of quality wines p.s.r. referred to in Article 1(3) of Regulation (EEC) No 817/70 of the Council (2) or whether it retains the wines appearing on an earlier provisional list;

° to declare whether the financial authorities of a Member State have a right and an interest in collecting, several years after completion of the export transaction, the monetary compensatory amounts not collected owing to a mistake attributable to the authorities;

° to assess the compatibility of the belated recovery of the compensatory amounts with the Community-law principle of the protection of legitimate expectations.

4. Thirteen other cases between wine exporters and the same defendant in which similar problems are raised were joined for the purposes of the written and oral procedures by order of the Court dated 27 February 1991.

5. The answer to the first question submitted by the Corte Suprema di Cassazione requires a detailed examination of the Community rules applicable.

6. It should be pointed out at the outset that the organization of the market in wine and wine products has gone through three main stages: first the objectives and structures were defined, then there was a regulatory phase and finally there followed the codification and clarification of the provisions in force.

7. It was Regulation No 24 of the Council of 4 April 1962 (3) which first laid the foundations of the organization of the market in wine and wine products and provided for the early machinery ° the establishment of a viticultural land register, the introduction of a system for the declaration of harvests and stocks, the drawing up of a forward estimate, the establishment of a Management Committee for Wine ° designed to achieve the successful completion of a quality policy and to attempt to reduce surpluses, the principal cause of the difficulties experienced by certain producing countries.

8. The 1970s were marked by significant legislative activity in the form of the deployment of coherent operational policy instruments concerning both the market in wine and wine products in general and specific types of production. Thus Regulations (EEC) Nos 816/70 and 817/70 of the Council of 28 April 1970 (4) established an initial scheme which underwent a number of amendments.

9. Finally the complexity of the legislative system in force and the intricacy of the amending regulations led the Council to adopt on 5 February 1979 Regulations (EEC) Nos 337/79 and 338/79 (5) codifying the provisions applicable in the wine and wine products sector. (6) Those two measures repealed Regulation No 24, Regulations Nos 816/70 and 817/70 and all other related measures. This new machinery was in turn to be amended by Council Regulations (EEC) Nos 822/87 and 823/87. (7)

10. Since the exports from which the main proceedings stemmed were carried out between June and August 1973, the arrangements applicable to them must be precisely determined.

11. In order to provide clarification of the relevant legislative provisions, I shall separate the presentation of the provisions relating to accompanying certificates from those relating to the lists of quality wines p.s.r., although certain of the regulations concern both the accompanying documents and the lists.

12. In relation, first of all, to the lists of quality wines p.s.r., three measures must be considered by the Court.

13. In the first place, Regulation No 817/70, Article 1 of which initially consisted of only two paragraphs, provides that:

"This Regulation lays down special provisions for quality wines produced in specified regions.

' Quality wines produced in specified regions' (hereinafter called 'quality wines p.s.r.' ) means wine which satisfies the provisions of this Regulation and those adopted in application thereof, and are defined by national rules."

14. Next, Regulation (EEC) No 1627/71 of the Council of 26 July 1971 (8) added a third paragraph to Article 1 of Regulation No 817/70, worded as follows:

"Until Member States have adopted, in respect of the quality wines p.s.r. produced on their territory, the national provisions on conditions of production referred to in Articles 2, 3, 4, 6(1), 7 and 10, and until 31 August 1973 at the latest, wines appearing on a list adopted according to the procedure provided for in Article 7 of Regulation No 24 shall be considered as quality wines p.s.r. if they are in conformity with the other provisions of this Regulation." (9)

15. Finally, Regulation No 1311/73, cited above, defines as follows, in Article 1, the "list" referred to...