The Nouvelles Frontières case (Ministre Public v Asjes, Cases 209-13/84) resulted from a challenge to the French civil aviation code by the travel agency, Nouvelles Frontières, which queried the compatibility of the price-fixing arrangements in the code with the competition policy provisions of the Treaty of Rome. In April 1986, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the competition provisions did apply to air transport – even if the latter was not automatically included in any common transport policy – and clarified the powers of the European Commission to enforce them. Taken with the case brought by the European Parliament against the Council of Ministers for ‘failure to act’ in the transport field more generally, on which the Court ruled in May 1985, the Nouvelles Frontières judgement was an important step in efforts to liberalise air transport in Europe, as part of a common transport policy.
September 2012
Copyright: Anthony Teasdale, 2012
Citation: The Penguin Companion to European Union (2012), additional website entry