Reference for a preliminary ruling from Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (United Kingdom) made on 27 May 2019 – The Software Incubator Ltd v Computer Associates (UK) Ltd
(Case C-410/19)
Language of the case: English
Referring court
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: The Software Incubator Ltd
Defendant: Computer Associates (UK) Ltd
Questions referred
Where a copy of computer software is supplied to a principal’s customers electronically, and not on any tangible medium, does it constitute “goods” within the meaning of that term as it appears in the definition of a commercial agent in Article 1(2) of Council Directive 86/653/EEC of December 1986 on the co-ordination of the laws of member states relating to self-employed commercial agents1 (“Directive”)?
Where computer software is supplied to a principal’s customers by way of the grant to the customer of a perpetual licence to use a copy of the computer software, does that constitute a “sale of goods” within the meaning of that term as it appears in the definition of commercial agent in Article 1(2) of the Directive?
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1 OJ 1986, L 382, p. 17