Facts
- National legislation of Denmark prohibited the keeping of any bee other than the brown bee, in order to prevent cross-fertilisation, which would lead to the extinction of the brown bee in Denmark
- Bluhme had criminal proceedings bought against him in Denmark following his keeping of non-brown bees
- Bluhme appealed to the CJEU
Issue
- Did the prohibition against keeping any other type of bee violate Art 34 TFEU on the prohibition of quantitive restrictions on imports from other Member States
Decision
- No
Reasoning
- The national legislation came within the scope of Art 34 – bees were prohibited from being imported
- However, the legislation was justifiable under Art 36 TFEU under the ground of “the protection of health and life of humans, animals or plants”
- Articles 34 and 36 TFEU provided no defence to Bluhme’s criminal prosecution
