Art. 267 TFEU preliminary rulings: An overview of EU and national case law

1. Introduction1.1 Background to the Preliminary Ruling Procedure Article 267 TFEU (ex Art 234 EC) facilitates a dialogue between the national courts and the CJEU (hereinafter referred to as 'the Court') in order to allow national courts to seek guidance on the appropriate interpretation of EU law principles in a particular legal dispute, and from an EU perspective this process should enhance the uniform and consistent interpretation of EU law throughout the national courts. [1] The importance of the Article 267 preliminary ruling procedure in developing EU law generally, [2] has been stressed on innumerable occasions, [3] and in a competition law context, it has been noted that "the preliminary reference procedure has had a disproportionately significant impact on the substantive