The European Union's highest court ruled Thursday that the Irish liquor can be marketed and sold on the EU market in its traditional measurements.

The ruling backed Britain's Diageo PLC, the world's largest producer and distributor of alcoholic drinks, and went against Germany's spirits industry association, which wanted to ban certain small bottles of Baileys Irish Cream from being sold there.

"We are pleased about the outcome of the decision. It proves that our arguments about the free movement of goods within the European Union was correct," Diageo Germany spokesman Marco Faes said.

Baileys was sold in Germany in units of half a gill, or 7.1 centiliters, while continental measurements call for 5 or 10 centiliters. One centiliter equals about 0.02 of a U.S. pint.

The court said that barring the sale would impede the free movement of goods in the 27-nation EU, and argued that the consumer was sufficiently protected if the correct volume was clearly labeled on the bottle.

Last month, the European Commission decided it would allow Britain and Ireland to keep some of their old imperial measurements so pubs could still serve real pints and road signs would show miles instead of kilometers.

European Union rules drafted in 1999 aimed to phase out the imperial measures by 2009, but the EU's executive body backtracked in the face of public opposition.

Britain and Ireland, like almost all countries around the world, officially use the metric system, but also often use imperial measures in tandem.