No economic activity public authority by acting on statutory obligations

18-09-2012 Print this page
IPPT20120712, CJEU, Compass-Datenbank v Republik Osterreich

ABUSE OF A DOMINANT POSITION

 

No economic activity public authority by acting on statutory obligations; no undertaking (abuse of dominant position).

 

"51. Taking into account all of the foregoing considerations, the answer to the first and second questions is that the activity of a public authority consisting in the storing, in a database, of data which undertakings are obliged to report on the basis of statutory obligations, in permitting interested persons to search for that data and/or in providing them with print-outs thereof does not constitute an economic activity, and that public authority is not, therefore, to be regarded, in the course of that activity, as an undertaking, within the meaning of Article 102 TFEU. The fact that those searches and/or that provision of print-outs are carried out in consideration for remuneration provided for by law and not determined, directly or indirectly, by the entity concerned, is not such as to alter the legal classification of that activity. In addition, when such a public authority prohibits any other use of the data thus collected and made available to the public, by relying upon the sui generis protection granted to it as maker of the database at issue pursuant to Article 7 of Directive 96/9 or upon any other intellectual property right, it also does not exercise an economic activity and is not therefore to be regarded, in the course of that activity, as an undertaking, within the meaning of Article 102 TFEU."

 

IPPT20120712, CJEU, Compass-Datenbank v Republik Osterreich

 

C-138/11 - ECLI:EU:C:2012:449