News

31.01.2023

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For January 2023

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For January 2023

New judgments

С-57/21 of 12 January 2023

Competition - Abuse of a dominant position - Rules for settling claims for damages under national law for infringements of the provisions of Member States' and European Union's competition law - Evidence contained in the file of a competition authority - Pending proceedings before the European Commission in connection with a violation of competition rules - National proceedings concerning an action for damages for the same infringement - Conditions concerning the presentation of evidence

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Anti-competitive practices. Claims for damages under national law for violations of the provisions of Member States' and European Union's competition law. Request for production of evidence for the purposes of a claim for damages. Pending proceedings before the European Commission. The suspension by a national authority for the protection of competition of the administrative proceedings conducted by it on the grounds that the Commission has initiated proceedings cannot be equated with the termination of that administrative proceedings by that authority "by the adoption of a decision or on any other basis".

Proceedings concerning R's request for evidence in the context of a claim for damages for the damages that that company claims to have suffered as a result of Č's anti-competitive actions.

С-395/21 of 12 January 2023

Unfair terms in consumer contracts — Contract for the provision of legal services concluded between a lawyer and a consumer — Assessment of the unfairness of contractual terms — Exclusion of terms relating to the main subject matter of the contract — Term providing for the payment of lawyers’ fees on the basis of an hourly rate — Powers of the national court when dealing with a term considered to be ‘unfair’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

A contractual clause, by which the amount of remuneration for the provision of legal services is determined by hourly rate. A term in a contract for the provision of legal services concluded between a lawyer and a consumer, which has not been individually negotiated and which sets the cost of the services provided on the basis of an hourly rate, falls within the ‘main subject matter of the contract’. A term in a contract for the provision of legal services, which sets the price of those services on the basis of an hourly rate, without the consumer being provided, before the conclusion of the contract, with information that enables him or her to take a prudent decision in full knowledge of the economic consequences of concluding that contract, does not satisfy the requirement of being drafted in plain intelligible language.

Proceedings between a lawyer and her client.

С-680/20 of 19 January 2023

Competition – Dominant position – Imputation, to the producer, of actions of its distributors – Existence of contractual links between the producer and the distributors – Abuse – Exclusivity clause – Need to demonstrate the effects on the market – Concept of „ as efficient competitor test“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

The actions of distributors forming part of the distribution network for goods and services of a producer in a dominant position may be imputed to that producer if it is established that those actions were not adopted independently. Imputation, to the producer, of acts of distributors with which the producer has only contractual links.

Concept of „ as efficient competitor test“.

Proceedings concerning a penalty which an authority imposed on U for abuse of a dominant position on the Italian market for the distribution of individually packaged ice cream to certain types of businesses, such as beach resorts and bars.

 

December

 

С-269/20 of 1 December 2022

Value added tax – Taxable persons – Option for Member States to treat as a single taxable person persons who are legally independent but closely bound to one another by financial, economic and organisational links (‘VAT group’) – National legislation designating the controlling company of a VAT group as a single taxable person – Internal supplies within the VAT group – Supplies of services provided free of charge – Concept of ‘purposes other than those of the business’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

VAT groups. Designation of a member of a VAT group as the taxable person. Internal supplies within the VAT group. Supplies provided by a member of a VAT group which is a national foundation governed by public law. A Member State designating, as a single taxable person for VAT purposes, not the VAT group itself, but a member of that group, namely the controlling company of that group. Pursuit of an activity carried on in an official capacity in addition to an economic activity.

Concept of ‘purposes other than those of the business’.

Proceedings concerning a foundation’s liability for value added tax.

С-600/21 of 8 December 2022

Consumer protection – Unfair terms in consumer contracts – Criteria for assessing whether a term is unfair – Term relating to the accelerated repayment of a loan agreement – Contractual dispensation from the requirement for a formal written demand - Concept of ‘unfair term’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

The criteria for assessing the unfairness of a contractual term in particular the significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties to the contract which that term causes to the detriment of the consumer, cannot be understood either as being cumulative or as being alternative, but must be understood as forming part of all the circumstances surrounding the conclusion of the contract at issue. A contractual term which expressly and unequivocally provides that the accelerated repayment procedure in respect of that agreement may be triggered automatically in the event that the delay in paying an instalment exceeds a certain period.

Concept of ‘unfair term’.

Proceedings concerning a repossession procedure carried out at QE’s home after the banking institution triggered the accelerated repayment procedure in respect of the loan agreement concluded between those two parties.

С-694/20 of 8 December 2022

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Administrative cooperation in the field of taxation — Mandatory automatic exchange of information in relation to reportable cross-border arrangements — Legal professional privilege of the lawyer — Exemption from the reporting obligation for the benefit of lawyer-intermediaries subject to legal professional privilege — Obligation on that lawyer-intermediary to notify any other intermediary who is not his or her client of that intermediary’s reporting obligations

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Effect of requiring a lawyer acting as an intermediary where he or she is exempt from the reporting obligation on account of the legal professional privilege by which he or she is bound, to notify without delay any other intermediary who is not his or her client of that intermediary’s reporting obligations. Extent of the protection of the legal professional privilege of lawyers who participate as ‘intermediaries’ in the design of tax arrangements and the reporting and notification obligations incumbent on them.

Proceedings, concerning the validity of certain provisions of Flemish legislation on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation.

С-577/21 of 15 December 2022

Compulsory insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles — Cover by compulsory insurance — Road traffic accident — Death of a passenger — Right to compensation for minor children — Non-material damage — Suffering of a child resulting from the death of his or her parent as a result of that accident — Compensation only in the event of pathological damage — Concept of ‘personal injury’

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Insurance, that covers compulsorily both damage to property and personal injuries. National legislation which makes compensation, by an insurer against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles, for non-material damage suffered by close family members of victims of road traffic accidents subject to the condition that that harm entailed pathological damage to the health of such close family members.

Proceedings between, on the one hand, L and N and, on the other hand, H an insurance company, concerning compensation by the latter, on the basis of compulsory civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles, for non-material damage suffered by L and N as a result of the death of their mother in a road traffic accident.

С-392/21 of 22 December 2022

Social policy — Protection of the safety and health of workers — Work with display screen equipment — Protection of workers’ eyes and eyesight — Special corrective appliances — Spectacles — Acquisition by the employee — Arrangements for the employer to meet the costs — Concepts „normal corrective appliances“ and „special corrective appliances appropriate for the work concerned“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Protection of workers’ eyes and eyesight. Employer’s obligation to provide the workers concerned with a special corrective appliance, may be met by the direct provision of the appliance to the worker by the employer or by reimbursement of the necessary expenses incurred by the worker.

Concepts „normal corrective appliances“ and „special corrective appliances appropriate for the work concerned“

Proceedings concerning the General Inspectorate for Immigration’s rejection of T’s request for reimbursement of the costs associated with the acquisition of spectacles.