Indirectly discriminatory taxation can be objectively justified.

Belgium charged importers for storage facilities.

For a charge to escape Article 30, the service must be of direct benefit to the importer (or exporter) and the charge must be proportionate to the value of the service.

Danish legislation for the protection of the environment concerning drinks containers.

The Cassis list of mandatory requirements extended by the Court of Justice to the protection of the environment.

Ireland required imported souvenirs depicting Irish motifs to be marked ‘foreign’ or with their country of origin.

The Cassis rule of reason applies only to indistinctly applicable measures. The Article 36 list of justifications is exhaustive.

French charge on meat products.

Internal taxation: ‘a general system of internal dues applied systematically and in accordance with the same criteria to domestic products and imported products alike’.

Belgian charge on imported diamonds.

‘CEE’: ‘any pecuniary charge … imposed on … goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier and which is not a customs duty in the strict sense.’ The charge need not be protectionist to constitute a breach.

Italian levy on rice.

Quantitative restrictions: ‘measures which amount to a total or partial restraint of … imports, exports or goods in transit’.

French two-tier system of car taxation based on power-rating.

Indirect discrimination: does not openly discriminate on the basis of product origin but its effect is to disadvantage imports.

French competition rules prohibiting resale of goods at a loss.

National measures prohibiting ‘selling arrangements’ fall outside Dassonville ‘provided that those provisions apply to all affected traders operating within the national territory and provided that they affect in the same manner, in law and in fact, the marketing of domestic products and of those from other Member States’.

Belgian legislation requiring certificates of origin.

MEQRs: ‘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.’

German requirement: fruit liqueurs sold in Germany must have a minimum alcohol content of 25 per cent.

Principle of mutual recognition: provided goods have been lawfully produced and marketed in one Member State, there is no reason why they should not be introduced into another without restriction. Rule of reason: restrictions must be accepted insofar as they are necessary to satisfy ‘mandatory requirements’; the measure must be proportionate.

Germany inspected imported (but not domestic) apples.

A distinctly applicable measure: the measure did not apply equally to imports and the domestic product.

Belgium required margarine for retail sale to be cube-shaped.

An indistinctly applicable measure: the measure applied equally to imports and the domestic product.