JUDGMENT OF 10. 7. 1980 — CASE 99/79 LANCÔME v ETOS

In Case 99/79 REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty by the Arrondissementsrechtbank, Haarlem (First Chamber), for a preliminary ruling in the action pending befor that court between

THE COURT composed of: H. Kutscher, President, À. O'Keeffe and A. Touffait (Presidents of Chambers), J. Mertens de Wilmars, P. Pescatore, Lord Mackenzie Stuart, G. Bosco, T. Koopmans and O. Due, Judges, Advocate General: G. Reischl Registrar: A. Van Houtte

gives the following

JUDGMENT

Facts and Issues

I — Facts and procedure

II — Written observations submitted under Article 20 of the Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EEC

A — Observations submitted by the plaintiffs in the main action

The first question

The second question

The third question

B — Observations submitted by the defendants in the main action

The first question

The second question

The third question

The first question

The second question

The third question

C — Observations submitted by the Commission

The first question

The second question

The third question

III — Oral procedure

IV — Reopening of the oral procedure

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Decision

The first question

The legal nature of the letters in question

Provisional validity

The second question

The third question

Costs

1 The text of the order is reproduced in the judgment of the Court in Joined Cases 253/78 and 1 to 3/79.

2 The observations submitted by those Member States and the Commission are summarized in the judgment of the Court in Joined Cases 253/78 and 1 to 3/79. The observations submitted by the plaintiffs in the main action in the present case correspond to those submitted by the defendants in the main actions in the abovementioned joined cases and are summarized in the judgment of the Court in Joined Cases 253/78 and 1 to 3/79.