Judgment_paragraph 86 · Colegiul Medicilor Veterinari din România (CMVRO) v Autoritatea Naţională Sanitară Veterinară şi pentru Siguranţa Alimentelor (C-297/16)

86While, as is clear from the Court’s case-law cited in paragraph 82 above, a Member State may lawfully prevent economic operators who are not veterinary practitioners from being in a position to exert decisive influence over the operation of establishments retailing veterinary medicinal products, the objective referred to in that paragraph cannot justify a provision that totally precludes such operators from holding shares in such establishments, as it is perfectly plausible that veterinary practitioners will be able to monitor such establishments effectively even if they do not hold all the shares in those establishments, given that the fact that a limited number of those shares are held by persons who are not veterinary practitioners will not necessarily make such monitoring impossible. Accordingly, national legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings goes beyond what is necessary to attain the objective pursued by the legislation.