Judgment_paragraph 1. · 162/78

1.The Commission submits in its plea that Regulation No 1837/78, which was drawn up in an abstract and general way and affects an unspecified number of traders, is of direct but not of individual concern to the applicants. The fact that the applicants belong to a group of exporters whose tenders were successful before a specified date does not mean that they were to that extent distinguished individually by the regulation itself, which does not distinguish between traders who participated in the invitations to tender, traders who were stated to be successful tenderers and traders who had already made arrangements for the purpose of their commercial operations.The view that the decision which is challenged must be of individual concern to the party affected has been endorsed by the case-law of the Court. Thus in Case 63/69 (Compagnie Française Commerciale et Financière SA v Commission of the European Communities [1970] ECR 205) and in Case 101/76 (Koninklijke Scholten Honig N.V. v Council and Commission of the European Communities [1977] ECR 797) it rejected the very argument used by the applicants. On the other hand, it was held in Case 100/74 (Société CAM. SA v Commission of the European Communities [1975] ECR 1393) that the person affected was individually concerned since the disputed provision applied only to the holders of licences in respect of which the refunds had been fixed in advance.