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28.11.2025

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

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

November

С-197/24 of 13 November 2025

Combating late payment in commercial transactions — Contract for the provision of legal services with a view to setting up a commercial company — Natural person who engaged the services of a lawyer with a view to setting up a commercial company — Concepts "undertaking" , "commercial transaction", "consumer"

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

A contract for the provision of legal services with a view to the formation of a commercial company. Fact that a natural person has engaged the services of a lawyer with a view to the formation of a commercial company, of which he or she was to become a co-founder, member and managing director, can suffice to classify that person as an ‘undertaking’. Concepts "undertaking" , "commercial transaction", "consumer".
Proceedings between A, a company providing legal services, and R, a natural person, concerning the payment of fees owing for legal services provided.

С-639/24 of 13 November 2025

Implementing measures for Directive 2006/112 on the common system of value added tax — Conditions for exemption in respect of intra-Community supplies of goods — Presumption — Requisite evidence — Principle of fiscal neutrality

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Refusal of VAT exemption on the sole ground that evidence of the existence of an intra-Community supply as provided for in Article 45a of Implementing Regulation No 282/2011 has not been provided. Requirement national tax authorities to assess any evidence produced for the purpose of determining that the goods were dispatched or transported from a Member State to a destination outside its territory but within the European Union, other than in the cases of presumption provided for in Article 45a(1) of Implementing Regulation No 282/2011.
Proceedings, concerning the exemption in respect of intra-Community supplies of goods from value added tax.

С-570/24 of 20 November 2025

Excise duties — Person liable to pay excise duty — Quantity of ethyl alcohol missing from a company’s business assets — Managing director of a company guilty of embezzlement and of a failure to make entries in the accounts — More than one person liable — Effect of a judgment of a criminal court delivered in respect of civil matters, finding the managing director solely liable — Concept of „an authorised warehousekeeper“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

General arrangements for excise duty. A legal person which, in order to obtain authorisation as a tax warehousekeeper, has been engaged in the production of ethyl alcohol under suspension of excise duty and from whose business assets a certain quantity of that alcohol has been found to be missing is covered by the concept of ‘person liable’ to pay that duty. For the purposes of determining the persons liable to pay the excise duty, a national court is not bound by the civil-law element of the operative part of a judgment of a criminal court. Concept of „an authorised warehousekeeper“.
Proceedings, concerning the validity of a notice of assessment requiring payment of excise duty in respect of a missing quantity of ethyl alcohol.

October

С-2/23 of 30 October 2025

Competition — Rules governing actions for damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union — Mechanism for mutual administrative and judicial assistance between national authorities — Transfer of the file from a competition authority to an authority conducting a criminal investigation — Addition to the file of a criminal investigation of leniency statements and settlement submissions and their annexes — Access to those documents by persons under investigation and other parties to such proceedings

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Access to the file of a competition authority. Limits on the use of evidence and information included in such a file in criminal proceedings. National legislation under which the national competition authority and the national cartel court are required, in the context of the mechanism for administrative assistance to transmit to the public prosecutor’s office, upon its request, the files of that competition authority and of that cartel court. Protection to leniency statements and to settlement submissions does not cover documents and information provided in order to explain, specify in detail and prove the content of those statements or submissions.
Proceedings relating to the objection regarding the addition to the file of a criminal investigation of leniency statements and settlement submissions made by those companies and of the annexes thereto.

С-143/23 of 30 October 2025

Consumer protection — Credit agreement for the purchase of a motor vehicle — Requirements relating to the information to be included in the agreement — Obligation to specify the interest rate applicable in the case of late payments — Consumer’s obligations towards the creditor — Method of calculating compensation for loss of value of the financed asset — Payment of interest following withdrawal from a credit agreement linked to a contract for the supply of goods — Concept of „linked credit agreement“

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Obligations of the consumer vis-à-vis the creditor. Withdrawal period, which does not begin to run until the credit agreement does not specify, in the form of a specific percentage, the interest rate applicable in the event of late payment at the time of conclusion of the agreement. National legislation under which a consumer who, after withdrawing from a consumer credit agreement linked to a vehicle purchase agreement, is required to pay the interest for the period between the payment of the loan funds to the seller and the date of return of the vehicle to the creditor or seller. Concept of „linked credit agreement “.
Two disputes, concerning the validity of the KI and FA in respect of the credit agreements they entered into, as consumers, with those banks.

С-348/24 of 30 October 2025

Customs union — Customs warehousing procedure — Release for free circulation — Goods sold for export to the customs territory of the European Union — Relevant point in time for the purpose of determining the customs value — Proof of origin of the goods — Period for submission of proofs of origin — Loss of the benefit of preferential treatment — Validity of documents proving the origin of the goods — Successive sales

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Value of goods for customs purposes. The relevant point in time for the purpose of determining the customs value of goods is that of their placement under that customs warehousing procedure, and the customs value of those goods may be determined on the basis of their transaction value at the time of the first sale. The customs authorities are not obliged to accept, for the purpose of applying tariff preferences to goods, a proof of origin which was submitted to them after the expiry of its period of validity, even though that proof of origin may have previously been submitted to those authorities before the expiry of its period of validity for the application of tariff preferences to other goods under the same quota.
Proceedings, concerning the determination of the customs value of certain goods and the validity of proofs of origin of those goods for the purpose of applying preferential arrangements.

С-500/24 of 30 October 2025

Customs union — Value of goods for customs purposes — Determination — Goods sold for export to the customs territory of the European Union — Successive sales

Key aspects of the decision in the economic range:

Goods were the subject of two sales prior to their introduction into the customs territory of the European Union in order either to be placed under the customs warehousing procedure in that territory or to be released for free circulation, the first sale cannot be considered to have taken place for the export of those goods to the customs territory of the European Union if, at the time of that first sale, it was established only that those goods were intended to be introduced into that territory, and the place where those goods were ultimately to be marketed had not yet been determined.
Proceedings, concerning the determination of the value of certain goods for customs purposes.