22In the case of companies, it should be borne in mind that their registered office for the purposes of Article 48 EC serves, in the same way as nationality in the case of individuals, as the connecting factor with the legal system of a Member State (see Metallgesellschaft and Others, paragraph 42, and the case-law cited). Acceptance of the proposition that the Member State in which a resident subsidiary is established may freely apply different treatment merely by reason of the fact that the registered office of the parent company is situated in another Member State would deprive Article 43 EC of all meaning (see, to that effect, Commission v France, paragraph 18; Case C-330/91 Commerzbank [1993] ECR I-4017, paragraph 13; Metalgesellschaft and Others, paragraph 42; and Case C-446/03 Marks & Spencer [2005] ECR I-10837, paragraph 37). Freedom of establishment thus seeks to guarantee the benefit of national treatment in the host Member State, by prohibiting any discrimination, even minimal, based on the place in which companies have their seat (see, to that effect, Commission v France, paragraph 14, and Saint-Gobain ZN, paragraph 35).
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