Article 16
1
Member States shall ensure that, with effect from the publication referred to in Article 17, seed of varieties accepted in accordance with this Directive or in accordance with principles corresponding to those of this Directive is not subject to any marketing restrictions relating to variety.
2
A Member State may, upon application which shall be dealt with under the procedure referred to in Article 23(2) or in Article 23(3) in the case of genetically modified varieties, be authorised to prohibit the use of the variety in all or in part of its territory or to lay down appropriate conditions for cultivating the variety in accordance, in cases provided for in subparagraph (c), with the conditions for using the products resulting from such cultivation:
a
where it is established that the cultivation of the variety could be harmful from the point of view of plant health to the cultivation of other varieties or species; or
b
where official growing trials carried out in the applicant Member States, Article 5(4) being applied correspondingly, show that the variety does not, in any part of its territory, produce results corresponding to those obtained from a comparable variety accepted in the territory of that Member State or, where it is well known that the variety is not suitable for cultivation in any part of its territory because of its type of maturity class. The application shall be lodged before the end of the third calendar year following that of acceptance;
c
where it has valid reasons other than those already mentioned or which may have been mentioned during the procedure referred to in Article 10(2) for considering that the variety presents a risk for human health or the environment.