Seitenhistorie

h6.



25 The Court of First Instance rightly  held, in paragraph 35 of the judgment under appeal, that in Community  competition law          the definition of an ‘undertaking’ covers any entity engaged in  an economic activity, regardless of the legal status of that          entity and the way in which it is financed (Case C-41/90 _Höfner{_}{_}and Elser_ \[1991\] ECR I-1979, paragraph 21, and Joined Cases C-264/01, C-306/01, C‑354/01 and C‑355/01 _AOK-Bundesverband and Others_ \[2004\] ECR I-2493, paragraph 46). In accordance with the case-law of  the Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance also          stated, in paragraph 36 of the judgment under appeal, that it  is the activity consisting in offering goods and services on          a given market that is the characteristic feature of an  economic activity (Case C‑35/96 _Commission_ v _Italy_ \[1998\] ECR I-3851, paragraph 36).

     The Court of First Instance  rightly deduced, in paragraph 36 of the judgment under appeal, that  there is no need to dissociate          the activity of purchasing goods from the subsequent use to  which they are put in order to determine the nature of that purchasing          activity, and that the nature of the purchasing activity must  be determined according to whether or not the subsequent use          of the purchased goods amounts to an economic activity.

     It follows that the first  part of the single plea raised by FENIN in support of its appeal, that  the purchasing activity of          the SNS management bodies constitutes an economic activity in  itself, dissociable from the service subsequently provided and          which, as such, should have been examined separately by the  Court of First Instance, must be dismissed as unfounded.

     Having regard to the foregoing considerations, the appeal must be dismissed as partly inadmissible and partly unfounded.{footnote}[ECJ, 11.07.2006, C-205/03 P - FENIN|http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62003J0205:EN:HTML] {footnote}

\\
----
{display-footnotes}