Procureur Du Roi v. Dassonville

Case 8/74, [1974] E.C.R. 837 (1974)

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Procureur Du Roi v. Dassonville

European Union Court of Justice
Case 8/74, [1974] E.C.R. 837 (1974)

Facts

Belgium passed a law prohibiting the import of a product bearing a designation of origin unless the product also came with a certificate attesting to the product’s origin issued by the country of origin (certificate of origin law). Merchants in France imported Scotch whisky, which was in circulation in France, into Belgium without a certificate from British authorities attesting to the origin of the whisky. The merchants were prosecuted in a Belgian court for violating the certificate of origin law. The proceedings determined that obtaining a certificate of origin for Scotch whisky already in circulation in France was substantially more difficult than obtaining a certificate for the same product when the product was imported from the country it was produced in. The Belgian court requested a preliminary ruling on whether the certificate of origin law violated European Union (EU) law prohibiting restrictions on the quantity of imports from other EU member states.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Per curiam)

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