Professor Graham Butler:

I should add that the Confédération paysanne case is extremely technical. Professor Tridimas pointed out some factual elements. It was a case of France implicitly not acting. We do not know why France did not prohibit the import of the goods. It was about alleged incorrect labelling of goods. The French state did not act in that regard either because it did not believe the French agricultural union's claims were valid or we can implicitly assume that the French state took it upon itself to determine that it is an external trade matter in which the EU has exclusive competence and France does not have the competence to legislate. That is why I say we cannot totally exclude the relevance of that case. From memory, I believe that paragraph 53 of that judgment also refers to the relevance of Article 24 of the import regulation which the court said in that case could not be invoked.