Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:228
Date: 1998-05-14
Language of the case: Italian
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Principles, objectives and tasks of the Treaties
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment
1. Preliminary rulings — Power of the Court — Limits — Problem of jurisdiction within the
national judicial system — Resolution depending on the classification of a legal situation in
the light of Community law — Purpose served by a preliminary ruling
(EC Treaty, Art. 177)
2. Community law — Primacy — Contrary national Uw — Rules automatically inapplicable,
without being rendered non-existent
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SUMMARY — JOINED CASES C-10/97 TO C-22/97
3. Community Uw — Direct effect — National charges incompatible with Community Uw —
Repayment — Arrangements — Application of national law — Classification of the legal rela-
tionship between the tax authorities and taxable persons
1. It is for the legal system of each Member
State to determine which court or tribunal
has jurisdiction to hear disputes involving
individual rights derived from Commu­
nity law. However, it is the Member States'
responsibility to ensure that those rights
are effectively protected in each case. Sub­
ject to that reservation, it is not for the
Court to involve itself in the resolution of
questions of jurisdiction to which the clas­
sification of particular legal situations based
on Community law may give rise in the
national judicial system.
The Court does, however, have the power,
in a reference for a preliminary ruling, to
explain to the national court points of
Community law which may help to solve
the problem of jurisdiction with which
that court is faced.
2. The incompatibility with Community law
of a subsequently adopted rule of national
law does not have the effect of rendering
that rule of national law non-existent.
Faced with such a situation, a national
court is obliged to disapply that rule, pro­
vided always that this obligation does not
restrict the power of the competent national
courts to apply, from among the various
procedures available under national law,
those which are appropriate for protecting
the individual rights conferred by Com­
munity law.
3. The obligation on a national court to dis­
apply national legislation introducing a
charge contrary to Community law must
lead that court, in principle, to uphold
claims for repayment of that charge. Such
repayment must be ensured in accordance
with the provisions of its national law, on
condition that those provisions are not less
favourable than those governing similar
domestic actions and do not render virtu­
ally impossible or excessively difficult the
exercise of rights conferred by Commu­
nity law. Any reclassification of the legal
relationship established between the tax
authorities of a Member State and certain
companies in that State when a domestic
charge subsequently found to be contrary
to Community law was levied is therefore
a matter for national law.
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