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Facts: There was an understanding between Eco Swiss, Benetton and Bulova
Solution: The ECJ decided that national procedural rules should be equally
effective for both national substantial rules and EU substantive rules.
EU rules are mostly substantive and states have the freedom to determine
the applicable procedure=> they are autonomous in this aspect, but they
must apply them equally. This is how ex officio is a consequence of the
autonomy principle.
ECJ chooses to extend the scenery in order to qualify the EU provision=> it
says that art. 85 EC is a matter of public policy
The ECJ does not talk about arbitrators, if they should have or not acted as
national judges and invoked competition rules.
It considers art. 85 as a fundamental provision => this is what the
Community is about. The purpose of the Maastricht treaty is to create an
internal market. That is why these provisions are of public policy.
Therefore, the Supreme Court must apply these rules ex officio, even if the
arbitral award did not mention them and the parties never invoked them
before and annul the decision.