Austria’s Tyrol region imposed a ban in 2003 on lorries of over 7.5 tonnes from carrying goods such as waste, stone, soil, cars, timber or cereals on a section of the A12 motorway, to protect human, animal and plant health.
But the European Court of Justice said in a statement on its ruling that such a sectoral ban obstructed the free movement, and especially the free transit, of goods.
"The measure concerns a road section of the utmost importance, constituting one of the main land routes between the south of Germany and the north of Italy," it said.
The court noted ?hat the area had exceeded the annual limit for nitrogen dioxide in 2002 and 2003, placing Austria under an obligation to bring the level down.
"However, the Tyrol sectoral ban and its legal basis, the Austrian law on air pollution … do not fulfil all the conditions necessary for the disputed ban to constitute a measure covered by those directives," it said.
"The sectoral traffic ban infringes the principle of proportionality," it added, saying Austria should have looked at less restrictive measures, did not study whether there were realistic alternative rail and road routes, and allowed only two months for implementing the ban.