ECに対する損害賠償請求（EC条約第235条、第228条第2項参照）の実体的要件について、第1審裁判所は、Chiquita 判決（Case T-19/01）において以下のように述べている。

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It is settled case-law that, for the Community to incur non-contractual liability within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 288 EC, a series of conditions must be met, namely the conduct of which the institutions are accused must have been unlawful, the damage must be real and a causal connection must exist between that conduct and the damage in question (Case 26/81 Oleifici Mediterranei v EEC [1982] ECR 3057, paragraph 16; Case T-175/94 International Procurement Services v Commission [1996] ECR II-729, paragraph 44; Case T-336/94 Efisol v Commission [1996] ECR II-1343, paragraph 30; Case T-267/94 Oleifici Italiani v Commission [1997] ECR II-1239, paragraph 20). Where any one of those conditions is not met, the application must be dismissed in its entirety without its being necessary to examine the other preconditions for such liability (Case C-146/91 KYDEP v Council and Commission [1994] ECR I-4199, paragraphs 19 and 81; Case T-170/00 Förde-Reederei v Council and Commission [2002] ECR II-515, paragraph 37).

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As regards the examination of the compensation claims in the light of the first of those conditions, namely that there be unlawful conduct, the case-law requires a sufficiently serious breach to be established of a rule of law intended to confer rights on individuals (Case C-352/98 P Bergaderm and Goupil v Commission [2000] ECR I-5291, paragraph 42). As regards the requirement that the breach be sufficiently serious, the decisive test for finding it fulfilled is whether the Community institution concerned manifestly and gravely disregarded the limits on its discretion. Where that institution has only a considerably reduced, or even no, discretion, the mere infringement of Community law may be sufficient to establish the existence of a sufficiently serious breach (Joined Cases T-198/95, T-171/96, T-230/97, T-174/98 and T-225/99 Comafrica and Dole Fresh Fruit Europe [2001] ECR II-1975, paragraph 134; Joined Cases T-64/01 and T-65/01 Afrikanische Frucht-Compagnie v Council and Commission [2004] ECR II-0000, paragraph 71).