Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) 19 January 1988

In Case 141/86 Reference to the Court under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty by the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between

THE COURT (Fourth Chamber), composed of: G. C. Rodríguez Iglesias, President of Chamber, T. Koopmans and C. Kakouris, Judges, Advocate General: C. O. Lenz Registrar: S. Hackspiel, acting as Administrator

after considering the observations submitted on behalf of Imperial Tobacco Ltd, the applicant in the main proceedings, by R. S. Whiting, Solicitor, in the written procedure, and by Francis Jacobs, QC, and J. F. Bellis, Barrister, in the oral procedure, the Belgian Government, by A. Van de Velde, Adviser at the Customs and Excise Administration, acting as Agent, in the written procedure, the United Kingdom, by H. R. L. Purse, Assistant Treasury Solicitor, acting as Agent, in the written procedure, the Commission of the European Communities, by P. Oliver, a member of its Legal Department, acting as Agent,

having regard to the Report for the Hearing and further to the hearing on 10 June 1987,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General delivered at the sitting on 22 September 1987,

gives the following

Judgment

The applicable legislation

The main proceedings

The first question

The second question

Costs

1 Language of the Case: English.

2 Entry under this subheading is subject to conditions to be determined by the competent authorities.