Judgment_paragraph 41 · P & O European Ferries (Vizcaya) SA and Diputación Foral de Vizcaya v Commission of the European Communities (C-442/03 P, C-471/03 P)

41Contrary to the view taken by the Court of First Instance, the BAI v Commission judgment did not only have relative authority preventing merely new actions from being brought with the same subject-matter, between the same parties and based on the same grounds. That judgment was invested with the force of res judicata with absolute effect and prevented legal questions which it had already settled from being referred to the Court of First Instance for reexamination.