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26.06.2025

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For June 2025

Tax & Financial Standards New Judgments of the ECJ For June 2025

June

С-310/24 of 5 June 2025

Consumer rights – Internal market for electricity – Electricity consumption inaccurately measured owing to meter malfunction – Billing on the basis of estimated electricity consumption – Unsolicited supply
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Contracts concluded between a trader and a consumer. Legal consequences of the malfunctioning of an electricity meter. A situation in which payment is demanded from a consumer for electricity provided in accordance with a valid contract, consumed, but not accurately measured owing to the malfunctioning of a meter.
Proceedings, concerning an invoice the amount of which was calculated on the basis of an estimated electricity consumption owing to the malfunctioning of the meter.

С-685/23 of 5 June 2025

Indirect taxes on the raising of capital — Duties on the creation, registration or discharge of mortgages or other charges on land or other property — Stamp duty on guarantees provided for the purposes of the proper execution of a debenture loan — Concepts of ’formalities’ and ’other charges on land or other property’
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Issue of debentures. Guarantee agreement. Stamp duty. A national legislation which provides for the imposition of stamp duty on guarantees provided in the form of pledges of shares, bank account balances or receivables resulting from shareholder loans.
Concepts of ’formalities’ and ’other charges on land or other property’.
Proceedings, concerning the imposition of stamp duty on guarantees provided for the purposes of the proper execution of a debenture loan.

С-125/24 of 12 June 2025

Taxation — VAT exemption — Reimportation of goods — Condition relating to exemption from customs duty on the importation of returned goods — Incurrence of a customs debt as a result of failure to comply with a formal obligation laid down in the customs legislation
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Common system of value added tax. Conditions for exemption from value added tax (VAT) applicable to a transaction involving the reimportation of goods. Non-compliance with formal obligations such as the presentation of goods to customs and the declaration for release for free circulation. Incurrence of a customs debt.
Proceedings, concerning the VAT liability of a transaction involving the reimportation of horses into the territory of the European Union.

С-509/23 of 19 June 2025

Prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing –Close associate of a politically exposed person – Obliged entities that are part of a group – Information sharing within the group – Application of decisions taken by another obliged entity that is part of that group – Ongoing monitoring of customers by obliged entities – Enhanced customer due diligence measures for providers of gambling services - Term of ‘business relationship’
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
An individual cannot be regarded as being a close associate of a politically exposed person solely on the ground that both persons are members of the executive body of the same association. The obligation imposed on the obliged entity, as a provider of gambling services, to apply customer due diligence measures where, upon the collection of winnings, the wagering of a stake, or both, the transaction amounts to EUR 2 000 or more, whether the transaction is carried out in a single operation.
Term of ‘business relationship’.
Proceedings concerning a financial penalty imposed on a company for infringements of the national provisions on prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.

С-671/23 of 19 June 2025

Prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering and terrorist financing — National legislation or national practice allowing a separate fine to be imposed in respect of each infringement established in the course of one and the same investigation — Observance of the general principles of EU law — Effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions — Principle ne bis in idem — Concept of ‘systematic infringement’
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
National legislation, under which each of the systematic infringements established in the course of one and the same investigation is classified as a ‘separate systematic infringement’ giving rise to a separate fine encourages the parties involved to avoid penalties and prevents a systemic risk that punishment will not be imposed. If the national legislation or national practice at issue in the main proceedings appears to be consistent with the principle of proportionality, it is nevertheless for the referring court to satisfy itself, that (i) the penalties do not go beyond what is necessary to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing and (ii) the severity of those penalties is commensurate with the gravity of the infringements which they seek to curtail.. Principle of effectiveness. Principle of proportionality. Principle ne bis in idem. Concept of ‘systematic infringement’.
Proceedings, concerning the Bank of Lithuania’s decision to impose eight separate fines on a company for having committed eight infringements of the national legislation on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.

С-785/23 of 19 June 2025

Common system of value added tax — Exemptions for certain activities in the public interest — Public postal services — Universal postal service provider — Concepts of ‘public postal service’ and ‘public interest service’
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services. Supplies of postal services provided, in accordance with separate contracts, by a holder of an individual license, which are not allowed to provide the universal postal service benefiting from the VAT exemption, when such supplies, which are intended to meet the special needs of the persons concerned without being offered to all users, are provided under different, more favourable conditions than those approved by the national authority.
Proceedings, concerning a tax assessment notice relating to an additional charge to value added tax that was demanded from a company.

С-351/23 of 24 June 2025

Consumer protection - Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union - Consumer credit contract - Early recovery of the loan – Extrajudicial sale by auction of that immovable property – National legislation allowing that sale to be made without prior verification, by a court, of the debt concerned – Grounds for the annulment of that sale excluding the existence of unfair terms – Effectiveness of the protection afforded to consumers
Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:
Unfair terms in consumer contracts. Contract secured by a charge over immovable property. Judicial proceedings in which, first, the company which was the successful bidder in an auction of immovable property constituting the family home of a consumer, sold in the context of extrajudicial enforcement of a mortgage granted over that property by that consumer for the benefit of a creditor acting in the course of trade, applies for the eviction of that consumer and, secondly, the consumer challenges, by means of a counterclaim, the lawfulness of the transfer of ownership of that property.
Proceedings between GR, on the one hand, and PO and RT, on the other hand, concerning, first, the eviction of the latter from their family home following its purchase by that company at an extra-judicial auction and, secondly, a counter-claim by which PO and RT challenge the lawfulness of the transfer of the ownership of that immovable property.