Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2011:513
Date: 2011-07-21
Language of the case: Spanish
Court formation: Seventh Chamber
Subject matter: Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment Approximation of laws – Telecommunications sector – Common framework for general authorisations and individual licences – Directive 97/13 – Fees and charges applicable to undertakings holding general authorisations (European Parliament and Council Directive 97/13, Art. 6) Article 6 of Directive 97/13 on a common framework for general authorisations and individual licences in the field of telecommunications services must be interpreted as not precluding legislation of a Member State introducing a fee imposed on holders of general authorisations, calculated annually and on the basis of the gross operating income of the chargeable operators, which seeks to cover the administrative costs relating to the issue, management, control and enforcement of those authorisations, to the extent that the combined revenue received by that Member State by way of such a fee does not exceed all of those administrative costs, which it is a matter for the national court to ascertain. Those payments must be based on objective, non-discriminatory and transparent criteria. However, Directive 97/13 cannot be interpreted to the effect that there must be an exact correlation between the amount of the fee imposed on a chargeable operator and the costs actually incurred by the national authority responsible for management of the general authorisation system and relating to that operator for a specific period, given that no provision of Directive 97/13 requires such a correlation. (see paras 20, 28, 35, operative part)