An action for damages arising from liability for a wrongful act, brought by the liquidator in insolvency proceedings and whose proceeds, if the claim succeeds, accrue to the general body of creditors, falls within the concept of 'civil and commercial matters' in Article 1(1) and therefore within the material scope of Regulation No 44/2001.

An unjust-enrichment action to recover sums not due, where it arises from the repayment of a fine imposed in competition-law proceedings, does not fall within "civil and commercial matters" under Article 1 of Regulation No 44/2001.

Article 1 of Regulation No 44/2001 does not apply to enforcement in one Member State of a penalty payment imposed by a judgment given in another Member State on rights of custody and rights of access, where that penalty is intended to ensure that the holder of the rights of custody complies with those rights of access.

An action seeking compensation for damage caused by alleged infringements of European Union competition law falls within "civil and commercial matters" under Article 1(1) of Regulation No 44/2001 and therefore within that regulation's scope.

An action for payment of a debt for carriage services, brought by the insolvency administrator of an insolvent undertaking in the course of insolvency proceedings opened in one Member State against a service recipient established in another Member State, falls within "civil and commercial matters" under Article 1(1) of Regulation No 44/2001.

Article 22(1) of Regulation No 44/2001 does not apply to non-contentious proceedings in which a Member State national, declared to lack full legal capacity and placed under guardianship under that State's law, asks a court in another Member State for authorisation to sell his share in immovable property there. Such proceedings concern the 'legal capacity of natural persons' within the meaning of Article 1(2)(a) and therefore fall outside the material scope of that regulation.

An action by a public authority of one Member State against natural or legal persons resident in another Member State, seeking damages for loss caused by a tortious conspiracy to commit VAT fraud in the first Member State, falls within 'civil and commercial matters' in Article 1(1) of Regulation No 44/2001.

An action to recover an amount unduly paid falls within 'civil and commercial matters' where a public body, required by an authority established by a law providing compensation for acts of persecution carried out by a totalitarian regime to pay a victim part of the proceeds of a land sale, unintentionally paid that person the entire sale price and then brought proceedings to recover the amount unduly paid.

An action against a third party falls within "civil and commercial matters" where the claimant relies on a claim assigned by a liquidator appointed in insolvency proceedings and seeks to have a transaction set aside under the national law applicable to those proceedings.

1. The concept of 'civil and commercial matters' in Article 1 of Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters must be interpreted as meaning that that regulation applies to the recognition and enforcement of a decision of a court or tribunal that contains an order to pay a fine in order to ensure compliance with a judgment given in a civil and commercial matter.

The exception in Article 1(2)(b) of Regulation No 44/2001 does not apply to a seller's action based on a reservation of title against an insolvent purchaser, where the asset covered by the reservation of title was in the Member State where the insolvency proceedings were opened when those proceedings were opened.

Article 1(2)(b) covers a judgment of a court in Member State A on the registration of ownership of shares in a company registered in Member State A, where that court treated the share transfer as invalid because it did not recognise the powers of a liquidator from Member State B in insolvency proceedings conducted and closed in Member State B.

1. Article 1 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2398/97 of 28 November 1997 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of cotton-type bed linen originating in Egypt, India and Pakistan is invalid in so far as the Council of the European Union applied, for the purpose of determining the dumping margin for the product subject to the investigation, the practice of 'zeroing' negative dumping margins for each of the product types concerned.