Translation of "Rendu sur achats " (French → English) :

In its judgment delivered today, the Court has replied that the new mechanism for offsetting in full the additional costs imposed on undertakings because of an obligation to purchase wind-generated electricity at a price higher than the market price that is financed by all final consumers of electricity constitutes an intervention through State resources.

The ECJ, in a preliminary ruling,[65] followed this approach and confirmed that ‘an invitation to purchase exists [.] without it being necessary for the commercial communication also to offer an actual opportunity to purchase the product or for it to appear in proximity to and at the same time as such an opportunity’.

In a judgment delivered on 1 March 2011 (2) (hereinafter ‘the Test-Achats ruling’), the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter ‘the Court of Justice’) declared Article 5(2) invalid with effect from 21 December 2012.

The exemption should therefore not cover vertical agreements containing any direct or indirect obligation or incentive which leads to the linking of sales and servicing activities or which makes the performance of one of these activities dependent on the performance of the other; this is in particular the case where the remuneration of distributors or authorised repairers relating to the purchase or sale of goods or services necessary for one activity is made dependent on the purchase or sale of goods or services relating to the other activity, or where all such goods or services are indistinctly aggregated into a single remuneration or ...[+++] discount system.

The introduction of the euro has removed an important psychological barrier to consumers shopping in other Member States and has made it easier to compare prices.

The thing that slows down the reporting the most is accounting for the very small transactions, such as credit card purchases, and we're looking at finding ways to streamline and accelerate that reporting.