Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2010:310
Date: 2010-06-03
Language of the case: Spanish
Court formation: First Chamber
Subject matter: Free movement of capital
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful;Action for failure to fulfil obligations - inadmissible
Origin: Spain

summary form, the legal and factual particulars on which those complaints are based (see, inter alia, Case C‑390/07 Commission v United Kingdom [2009] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 339). 72 In the present case, when it alleges infringement by the Kingdom of Spain of Article 40 of the EEA Agreement, the Commission merely refers to the difference in treatment arising from Article 14(1) of the Law on the tax on the income of non-residents as compared with the treatment of dividends paid to companies resident in Spain. 73 It must be held, as is clear from the very wording of Article 14(1) of the Law on the tax on the income of non-residents, that that provision applies only to dividends distributed to companies established in other Member States. 74 Since the Commission has failed to provide information relating to the legislation on dividends distributed to companies established in the EFTA States, the Court does not have sufficient evidence to enable it to determine precisely the scope of the infringement of Article 40 of the EEA Agreement allegedly committed by the Kingdom of Spain and thus to determine whether there is a breach of obligations as claimed by the Commission. 75 Accordingly, the complaint relating to the infringement of Article 40 of the EEA Agreement must be dismissed as inadmissible. Costs 76 Under Article 69(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the unsuccessful party is to be ordered to pay the costs, if they have been applied for in the successful party’s pleadings. Under Article 69(3) of the Rules of Procedure, the Court may, where each party succeeds on some and fails on other heads, or where the circumstances are exceptional, order that the costs be shared or that the parties bear their own costs. Since the Commission’s application has been upheld only in part, each party must be ordered to bear its own costs. On those grounds, the Court (First Chamber) hereby: 1. Declares that, by making the exemption of dividends distributed by companies resident in Spain subject to a level of holding by the recipient companies in the distributing companies which is higher for recipient companies residing in another Member State than for recipient companies resident in Spain, the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 56(1) EC. 2. Dismisses the action as to the remainder. 3. Orders the European Commission and the Kingdom of Spain to bear their own costs. [Signatures] **Language of the case: Spanish.