What is sufficient specialisation?
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE REPORT "Door-to-door selling — the Thomas Scott case" (CM July 28) suggests that the case has now been lost. This is not so. The House of Lords referred two specific questions to the European Court for a ruling on the points of law involved. The court has now given its opinion.
On the first point it has ruled that the term "specialised vehicle" is intended to cover exclusively vehicles whose construction fitments or other permanent characteristics guarantee that they are used primarily for door-to-door selling. The European Court has not decided that the vehicle which is the subject of the present case was not sufficiently specialised to come within the exemption.
This is a question of fact which still has to be decided by the House of Lords if the presen1 appeal is pursued.
The House of Lords will apply the interpretation of the European Court to the facts of the case and it will only be then that we shall have some idea as to what constitutes sufficient specialisation. It is clear that the vehicle must be permanently adapted in some way but it is not yet clear what type or degree of adaption is required to guarantee that a vehicle will be used primarily for door-todoor selling.
On the second point the Euroean Court ruled that "doorto-door selling" may consist of calls on potential wholesale customers such as shops, works canteen, old people's homes or supermarkets provided that the activity of selling is characterised by frequent stops by the specialised vehicle. Again, it will fall to the House of Lords to apply this interpretation to the facts of the case though there seems little doubt that those facts fall within the activities countenanced by the European Court.
M. O. BOOKER Legal Officer Freight Transport Association Tunbridge Wells, Kent