ECJ to fast-track ruling on German packaging plans

By Karen Carstens

Date: 04/03/04

THE European Court of Justice has indicated it will intervene earlier than expected in a bitter feud over a controversial German system for deposits on disposable drinks packaging that has pitted Berlin against industry.

During a legal hearing held in Luxembourg on Tuesday (2 March), the Court's advocate-general, Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer, in two related lawsuits, said he would issue his advisory opinion on 6 May, making a final judgement likely before the end of the year.

Should the court find against Berlin, an earlier judgement could have a greater political impact since there will be less time for the hotly contested deposits system to become fully operational.

It also makes it less likely that the government would have time to withdraw the rules, in which case the European Commission might drop its lawsuit, as happened in a related packaging dispute with Denmark.

Tuesday's hearing concerned firstly a lawsuit brought by the Commission and supported by France. The EU executive argues that German rules requiring at least 72% of drinks to be packaged in refillable containers discriminate against foreign mineral water producers.

In the linked case, referred by a German court, Austrian importers are alleging that deposits introduced on disposables to restore refillables to a 72% market share discriminate unfairly against them. Austria and Italy have intervened in this case.

In a statement released before the hearing, the German environment ministry stressed that mineral waters accounted for just 3% of the national beverage market.

It also denied that deposits on one-way containers affected domestic and foreign businesses any differently.

But, after the hearing, drinks industry lobbyists were optimistic that the court may end up siding with them. They argue that the deposit was, and remains, nothing more than an instrument to protect the domestic refillables market.