30With regard to companies, it should be noted that it is their registered office, central administration or principal place of business, within the meaning of Article 48 EC, that serves as the connecting factor with the legal system of a particular Member State, like nationality in the case of natural persons. To accept that the Member State of establishment may freely apply different treatment solely because the registered office, central administration or principal place of business of a company is situated in another Member State would deprive Article 43 EC of its substance (see, to that effect, Case 270/83 Commission v Trance [1986] ECR 273, paragraph 18; Case C-330/91 Commerzbank [1993] ECR I-4017, paragraph 13; Joined Cases C-397/98 and C-410/98 Metallgesellschaft and Others [2001] ECR I-1727, paragraph 42; Marks & Spencer, paragraph 37; and Test Claimants in Class TV of the ACT Group Litigation, paragraph 43). Freedom of establishment is thus designed to guarantee the benefit of national treatment in the host Member State, by prohibiting all discrimination based on the place where the registered office, central administration or principal place of business of a company is situated (Commission v Trance, paragraph 14; Saint-Gobain ZN, paragraph 35; and Test Claimants in Class IV of the ACT Group Litigation, paragraph 43).
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