Schmidberger v Austria

Eugen Schmidberger, Internationale Transporte und Planzüge v Austria (2003) C-112/00 is an EU law case, concerning the free movement of goods in the European Union.

Schmidberger, who ran a trucking company, claimed damages for loss caused by a protest group that had prevented it taking goods to Austria by lorry.

Transitforum Austria Tirol organised a demonstration to block the Brenner Autobahn, A13, a transit between Northern Europe and Italy.

The Court of Justice held that Austria's failure to ban the demonstration infringed article 34 and 35 TFEU, and TEU art 4(3).

However this was justified by the fundamental right of demonstrators to freedom of expression and assembly under the ECHR, national constitution and principles that were an integral part of EU law.