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COMMISSION NOTICE Guidelines providing a common understanding of the term ‘environmental damage’ as defined in Article 2 of Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage · European Union

| 15. | Under other applicable Union environmental legislation, operators are often required to hold, and respect the conditions of an authorisation; or they may be bound to operate in accordance with general binding requirements. It cannot be excluded, however, that some operators will carry out occupational activities without the required authorisation, or without respecting all the applicable rules. This may be the case, for example, with persons who carry out illegal waste operations. Such illegal conduct does not take such operators outside the scope of the Directive. Were it to do so, the result would be inconsistent with the polluter pays principle. The Directive is an expression of this principle – and needs to be interpreted in the light of it (28). Further support for coverage of illegal operators is provided by Case C-494/01, Commission v Ireland, in which the Court found that a failure to respect inspection requirements linked to permit requirements could arise in respect of waste operations carried out without any permit (29). By analogy, it can be argued that liability requirements under the Directive can similarly apply in respect of occupational activities carried out in disregard of authorisation or other regulatory requirements.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.