Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunalul București (Romania) lodged on 29 January 2019 — Star Taxi App SRL v Unitatea Administrativ Teritorială Municipiului București prin Primarul General and Consiliul General al Municipiului București

(Case C-62/19)

(2019/C 164/16)

Language of the case: Romanian

Referring court

Tribunalul București

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Star Taxi App SRL

Defendants: Unitatea Administrativ Teritorială Municipiului București prin Primarul General and Consiliul General al Municipiului București

Questions referred

1. Are the provisions of Directive 98/34/EC (1) (Article 1(2)), as amended by Directive 98/48/EC, (2) and of Directive 2000/31/EC (3) (Article 2(a)), which state that an Information Society service is a ‘service. provided for remuneration, at a distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of a recipient of services’, to be interpreted as meaning that an activity such as that carried on by Star Taxi App SRL (namely a service consisting in putting taxi passengers directly in touch, via an electronic application, with taxi drivers) must be regarded specifically as an Information Society and collaborative economy service (bearing in mind that Star Taxi App SRL does not fulfil the criteria for being a transport undertaking considered by the Court of Justice of the European Union in paragraph 39 of its judgment in Case C-434/15 with reference to Uber)?

2. In the event that [the application operated by] Star Taxi App SRL is to be regarded as an Information Society service, do the provisions of Article 4 of Directive 2000/31/EC, of Articles 9, 10 and 16 of Directive 2006/123/EC (4) and of Article 56 TFEU entail the application of the principle of the freedom to provide services to the activity carried on by Star Taxi App SRL? If the answer to that question is in the affirmative, do those provisions preclude rules such as those set out in Articles I, II, III, IV and V of Hotărârea Consiliului General al Municipiului București nr. 626/19.12.2017 (Decision No 626 of the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest of 19 December 2017) (‘CGMB Decision No 626/2017’) amending and supplementing CGMB Decision No 178/2008 approving the framework regulation for the organisation and operation of local public taxi services, the regulations governing that service and the concession agreement for the delegated management of that service?

3. In the event that Directive 2000/31/EC applies to the service provided by Star Taxi App SRL, are restrictions imposed by a Member State on the freedom to provide Information Society services which make the provision of such services conditional on the possession of an authorisation or licence valid measures derogating from Article 3(2) of Directive 2000/31/EC in accordance with Article 3(4) of that directive?

4. Do the provisions of Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2015/1535 (5) preclude the adoption, without first notifying the European Commission, of regulations such as those set out in Articles I, II, III, IV and V of CGMB Decision No 626/2017 amending and supplementing CGMB Decision No 178/2008 approving the framework regulation for the organisation and operation of local public taxi services, the regulations governing that service and the concession agreement for the delegated management of that service?

(1) Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (OJ 1998 L 204, p. 37).

(2) Directive 98/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 July 1998 amending Directive 98/34/EC laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (OJ 1998 L 217, p. 18).

(3) Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (‘Directive on electronic commerce’) (OJ 2000 L 178, p. 1).

(4) Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market (OJ 2006 L 376, p. 36).

(5) Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical regulations and of rules on Information Society services (codification) (OJ 2015 L 241, p. 1).