Judgment_paragraph 79 · The Queen v The Licensing Authority established by the Medicines Act 1968 (acting by The Medicines Control Agency), ex parte Generics (UK) Ltd, The Wellcome Foundation Ltd and Glaxo Operations UK Ltd and Others (C-368/96)

79Under the Court's case-law, the right to property forms part of the general principles of Community law. Those principles are not absolute, however, but must be viewed in relation to their social purpose. Consequently, the exercise of the right to property may be restricted, provided that the restrictions in fact correspond to objectives of general interest pursued by the Community and do not constitute disproportionate and unacceptable interference, impairing the very substance of the right guaranteed (see, in particular, the judgment in SAM Schiffahrt and Stapf v Germany, cited above, and Case C-200/96 Metronome Musik [1998] ECR I-1953, paragraph 21).