The Outer Limits of Article 28 EC: Purely Internal Situations and the Development of the Court's Approach Through the Years

Abstract:     
The purely internal rule has been one of the ways that have traditionally been utilised by the ECJ in drawing a line between the scope of application of Article 28 EC and Member State laws regulating trade. The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to provide an account of how the Court has dealt, in different phases of the Community's development, with purely internal situations and, in particular, to provide an analysis of the Court's recently varied approach in finding a link with EC law in some Article 28 cases; secondly, to offer, in parallel, an exegesis of how the Court seems, now, to be in the early stages of a process through which it aims to address the problems caused by the application of the purely internal situations doctrine. It will be concluded that, although the Court has managed to respond successfully to one of the key problems caused by the application of its traditional approach to purely internal situations (i.e. the failure, in some instances, to reflect economic reality), more effort needs to be put by the Community institutions in dealing effectively with the other major problem emerging from the application of the purely internal rule (the reverse discrimination conundrum).

Keywords: EC law, Free movement of goods, Purely internal situations, Reverse discrimination

Working Paper Series