Commission guidelines on market analysis and the assessment of significant market power do not impose obligations on individuals. Case comment to the preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 12 May 2011 Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa sp. z o.o.(PTC) v Prezes Urzędu Komunikacji Elektronicznej (Case C-410/09)

Abstract

The ruling of the Court of Justice (hereafter, CJ) in the PTC case concerns the interpretation of Article 58 of the Treaty of Accession1 establishing an obligation to publish EU legal acts in the languages of Member States which accessed the EU on 1 May 2004. A controversy emerged in this context whether the said obligation also applied to European Commission Guidelines on relevant market analysis and the assessment of significant market power in the field of electronic communication (hereafter, 2002 Guidelines)2. In general, guidelines issued by the Commission are regarded as acts of soft law, also called innominate acts or sui generis acts.