Opinion of Mr Advocate General VerLoren van Themaat delivered on 18 October 1983

1 Translated from the Dutch.

2 Resale price maintenance, published by the European Productivity Agency of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, Paris 1958, including a survey of the relevant legislation of the Western countries at the time of publication. The principal American views on these advantages and disadvantages (mostly originating in the period referred to) are to be found in Part XII, No 2, of the Journal of Reprints for Antitrust Law and Economics (Federal Legal Publications 1981). As regards British publications in the years in question I would refer in particular to: E. B. Stevens and B. S. Yamay, The Restrictive Practices Court (London 1965) and A. Turner, Competition and the Law (London 1966), both of which express very critical views about the judgment of the Restrictive Practices Court with regard to the Netbook Agreement, on which the applicants and the interveners supporting them have relied. A brief summary of the German discussions during that period may be found in Immenga/Mestmaecker, Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen, Kommentar zum Kartellgesetz, {1981), pp. 462 et seq.

3 In its quotation of this paragraph the applicant incorrectly refers to objective (singular), which naturally may give rise to misunderstanding as to the scope of the paragraph, but this is corrected by the accurate quotation from the other judgment.

4 Por lhe size of ihis proportion I would remind the Court of the figures mentioned by the Dutch Association's representative during the oral procedure.