Judgment_paragraph 75 · Commission of the European Communities v AMI Semiconductor Belgium BVBA and Others (C-294/02)

75In the first place, they infringe the requirements of Article 38 of the Rules of Procedure. According to that article, parties are required to state the subject-matter of the proceedings in their originating application. Even though Article 42 of the Rules of Procedure allows new pleas in law to be introduced in certain circumstances, a party may not alter the actual subject-matter of the action in the course of the proceedings (see Case 232/78 Commission v France [1979] ECR 2729, paragraph 3, and Case 125/78 GEMA v Commission [1979] ECR 3173, paragraph 26). New claims put forward for the first time at the hearing could not be allowed without depriving defendants of an opportunity to prepare a response and thereby breaching the rights of the defence.