The German Federal Court of Justice holds that the EC motor vehicles block exemption does not create any obligation to admit a plaintiff as an authorized repairer (Qualitative Selektion)

Background The defendant, a manufacturer of motor vehicles, terminated its service agreement with the plaintiff, an authorized provider of repair and maintenance services, by contractual notice effective June 30, 2002. The defendant intended to change its criteria for selecting authorized repairers from quantitative to qualitative measures. In so doing, the defendant sought to qualify for the new block exemption for motor vehicle distribution (Commission Regulation (EC) n° 1400/2002, of 31 July 2002, on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of vertical agreements and concerted practices in the motor vehicle sector ; OJ L 203, 1st August 2002, p. 30-41) which entered into effect October 1, 2002. To the existing