60It should be recalled, in this respect, that the Court has held that the mere requirement, for treatment planned in another Member State, of prior authorisation to which responsibility for payment by the competent institution is made subject, in accordance with the rules governing cover in force in the Member State to which that institution belongs, constitutes, both for patients and service providers, an obstacle to the freedom to provide services, since such a system deters, or even prevents, those patients from approaching providers of medical services established in a Member State to obtain the treatment in question (see, to that effect, Kohll, paragraph 35; Smits and Peerbooms, paragraph 69; Müller-Fauré and van Riet, paragraphs 41, 44 and 103; Watts, paragraph 98; and Commission v France, paragraph 32).
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