Opinion of Advocate General Gulmann delivered on 9 June 1994

1 Original language: Danish.

2 In the Commission Proposal of 18 October 1993 for a Council Directive on articles of precious metal (OJ 1993 C 318, p. 5) the expression standard of fineness (for which in the Danish version the expression Idighed is used instead of holdighed) is described as the fine precious-metal content expressed in parts per thousand in relation to the total mass of the alloy concerned (Article l(2)(f))-

3 The question is as follows: Is a provision such as that contained in Article 30 of the Waarborgwet 19S6 (Stb. 38/1987) compatible with Articles 30 and 36 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (Treaty of 25 March 1957, Trb. 1957, 74 and 91)?, and it is added that the effect of the provision in question in the Netherlands Law is that it is prohibited to deal in gold and silver articles after their importation into the Netherlands unless they arc struck with a Netherlands, Belgian or Luxembourg fineness mark even if they bear a fineness mark of another Member State.

4 According to my information, Denmark, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

5 The Convention was signed in Vienna on 15 November 1972 between Finland, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Austria.

6 See note 1.

7 Waarborgwet, Article 30.

8 Waarborgwet, Article 7.

9 Waarborgwet, Article 1.

10 Waarborgwet, Article 3.

11 However, in Article 48 of the Waarborgwet there is an exception to that requirement for articles officially marked in Belgium and Luxembourg after harmonization of the rules of the countries concerned under The Hague Treaty of 18 February 1950 between the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (Trb. 1951, p. 159). However, in the Netherlands Government's observations it is pointed out that that exception has lost all real practical significance since official hallmarking no longer takes place in Luxembourg and does so only seldom in Belgium.

12 See in this respect the judgments in Case 8/74 Dassonville [1974] ECR 837 at paragraph 5, Case 120/78 REWE (Cassis de Dijon) [1979] ECR 649 and in particular Joined Cases C-267 and 268/91 Keck and Mithouard [1993] ECR I-6097.

13 See in this respect the two last-mentioned judgments in the previous footnote and the judgment in Case C-126/91 Yves Rocha GmbH [1993] ECR I-2361 at paragraph 12.

14 [1982] ECR 2349.