Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:40
Date: 1999-01-28
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Internal taxation
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment 
Tax provisions — Internal taxation — Differential taxation of motor vehicles — Sharp 
increase in progression coefficient above a cylinder level exceeded only by imported 
vehicles — Whether permissible — Conditions — Must not favour sales of vehicles of 
domestic manufacture 
(EC Treaty, Art. 95 (now, after amendment, Art. 90 EC)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-421/97 
Article 95 of the Treaty (now, after amend­
ment, Article 90 EC) does not preclude the 
application of national rules providing for a 
differential tax on motor vehicles, where 
the progression coefficient between one 
band and another rises more sharply in 
the bands above a certain cylinder power, 
covering exclusively imported vehicles, 
than in the lower bands, provided that the 
increase does not have the effect of favour­
ing the sale of vehicles of domestic manu­
facture over the sale of vehicles imported 
from other Member States, in so far as 
consumers have a wide choice of imported 
vehicles among the lower-rated vehicles 
which are considered to be similar. 
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