Case C-85/10: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 10 March 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Supremo — Spain) — Telefónica Móviles España, SA v Administración del Estado, Secretaría de Estado de Telecomunicaciones (Telecommunication services — Directive 97/13/EC — General authorisations and individual licences — Fees and charges applicable to undertakings holding individual licences — Article 11(2) — Interpretation — National legislation which does not allocate any special use to a fee — Increase in the fee for digital systems, but no change in the fee for first generation analogue systems — Compatibility)
Date: 2011-03-10
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Spain, interpretation of the law, mobile phone, quasi-fiscal charge








C_2011139EN.01001002.xml










7.5.2011   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 139/10





Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 10 March 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Supremo — Spain) — Telefónica Móviles España, SA v Administración del Estado, Secretaría de Estado de Telecomunicaciones
(Case C-85/10) (1)

(Telecommunication services - Directive 97/13/EC - General authorisations and individual licences - Fees and charges applicable to undertakings holding individual licences - Article 11(2) - Interpretation - National legislation which does not allocate any special use to a fee - Increase in the fee for digital systems, but no change in the fee for first generation analogue systems - Compatibility)
2011/C 139/16
Language of the case: Spanish

Referring court

Tribunal Supremo

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Telefónica Móviles España, SA

Defendants: Administración del Estado, Secretaría de Estado de Telecomunicaciones

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Tribunal Supremo — Interpretation of Article 11(2) of Directive 97/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 April 1997 on a common framework for general authorisations and individual licences in the field of telecommunications services (OJ 1997 L 117, p. 15) — Fees and charges applicable to undertakings holding individual licences — Imposition of pecuniary charges above and beyond those authorised by the directive and for a purpose not provided for therein — More advanced technologies penalised as compared with obsolete technologies

Operative part of the judgment

The requirements laid down in Article 11(2) of Directive 97/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 April 1997 on a common framework for general authorisations and individual licences in the field of telecommunications — under which a charge imposed on operators of telecommunications services for the use of scarce resources must seek to ensure optimal use of those resources and must take into account the need to foster the development of innovative services and competition — must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which provides for a fee to be levied on operators of telecommunications services holding individual licences for the use of radio frequencies, but does not allocate a specific use to the income derived from that fee, and which significantly increases the fee for a particular technology but leaves it unchanged for another.


(1)  OJ C 134, 22.5.2010.