126The defendants in the main proceedings observe that Article 28 EC prohibits all obstacles to imports regardless of where the goods were manufactured. The Court has expressly accepted that the protection of the free movement of goods covers reimportation of goods (see Case C-240/95 Schmit [1996] ECR I-3179, paragraph 10; Case C-201/94 Smith Sc Nephew and Primecrown [1996] ECR I-5819, paragraphs 18 to 22; Joined Cases C-267/95 and C-268/95 Merck and Beecham [1996] ECR I-6285, and Case C-379/97 Upjohn [1999] ECR I-6927, paragraphs 13 and 14). They submit that, contrary to the view expressed by the Court in Case 33/74 Van Binsbergen [1974] ECR 1299 and Case 229/83 Leclerc and Others [1985] ECR 1, the reimportation of authorised medicinal products from a pharmacy established in another Member State does not constitute unlawful circumvention of mandatory national provisions. The defendants in the main action state that the cross-border commercial transaction at issue before the national court was carried out in two distinct marketing stages and, in addition, at different levels of the market (first, the medicinal products were exported by German wholesalers to pharmacies established in another Member State and second, they were reimported by way of retail sale to private customers). The defendants conclude that the transaction merits protection under Article 28 EC, given that it is conducive precisely to the attainment of the objectives of that article. Nor is there any abuse of the free movement of goods, for the simple reason that sale by mail order pursues precisely the objective at the heart of the free movement of goods (see, as regards freedom of establishment, Case C-212/97 Centros [1999] ECR I-1459).
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