Telecoms law on trial

Date: 09/11/1995

THE European Court of Justice is to rule on whether a French regulation on the licensing of telecommunications equipment is in violation of EU law.

The judges will decide today (9 November) whether to support an opinion delivered by Advocate-General Giuseppe Tesauro in June. Tesauro noted that the rule - which forbids, under threat of sanctions, the manufacture, importation, sale, distribution or advertising of telephone terminal equipment without prior approval - was contrary to the 1988 directive on the market in telecommunications equipment.

The case was brought after French citizen Thierry Tranchant advertised non-approved equipment between November 1992 and February 1993. He opposed the action against him, alleging that the regulation violated Article 6 of the directive, which says the body charged with setting technical specifications, application and licencing of equipment should be independent of the company offering goods and services.

When France implemented the directive, it insisted that certain equipment connected to the public network still had to win prior approval from the ministry of post and telecommunications.

In 1990, the commercial and regulatory activities of the operator were separated, but the advocate-general still found they were too interconnected.

The tests on the equipment are carried out by a single laboratory which, as part of the Centre National d'Etudes des Télécommunications (CNET), is a unit of France Télécom.