Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2008:202
Date: 2008-04-08
Language of the case: Swedish
Court formation: Grand Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Internal taxation;Excise duties
Concepts: Prohibition of taxation of such a nature as to afford indirect protection to competing domestic products
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - unfounded
Origin: Sweden

Summary of the Judgment Tax provisions – Internal taxation – Taxation apt to protect other products indirectly (EC Treaty, Art. 95, second para. (now, after amendment, Art. 90, second para., EC)) A national taxation system which taxes wine, which is mainly imported from other Member States, more heavily than beer, which is mainly a domestic product, and which is based on the taxation of the percentage of alcohol by volume of the wine and the beer, does not appear to have the effect of affording indirect protection to national beer and therefore is not incompatible with the second paragraph of Article 95 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, the second paragraph of Article 90 EC) since, on the one hand, the difference between the price of strong beer and the price of wine in the intermediate category, in competition with that beer, is such that the difference in the tax treatment of those two products is not liable to influence consumer behaviour in the sector concerned and, on the other, it is not shown by the statistical information regarding sales of the products in question that there is an actual protective effect. (see paras 57-60)