Case C-316/22,  Gabel Industria Tessile and Canavesi: Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 11 April 2024 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunale di Como - Italy) - Gabel Industria Tessile SpA, Canavesi SpA v A2A Energia SpA, Energit SpA, Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Directive 2008/118/EC – Article 1(2) – Excise duties – Electricity – National legislation creating an additional tax on electricity excise duties – Lack of specific purposes – Additional tax deemed contrary to Directive 2008/118/EC by the national courts – Recovery by the final consumer of the tax unduly paid from the supplier alone – Article 288 TFEU – Direct effect – Principle of effectiveness)
Date: 2024-04-11
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: EU law - national law, civil proceedings, claim, consumer, directive (EU), excise duty, national implementing measure, supplier, tax rebate








C_202403279EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2024/3279


3.6.2024






Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 11 April 2024 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunale di Como - Italy) - Gabel Industria Tessile SpA, Canavesi SpA v A2A Energia SpA, Energit SpA, Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli


(Case C-316/22,
                (1)
Gabel Industria Tessile and Canavesi)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Directive 2008/118/EC - Article 1(2) - Excise duties - Electricity - National legislation creating an additional tax on electricity excise duties - Lack of specific purposes - Additional tax deemed contrary to Directive 2008/118/EC by the national courts - Recovery by the final consumer of the tax unduly paid from the supplier alone - Article 288 TFEU - Direct effect - Principle of effectiveness)
(C/2024/3279)
Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Tribunale di Como

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicants: Gabel Industria Tessile SpA, Canavesi SpA

Defendants: A2A Energia SpA, Energit SpA, Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli

Operative part of the judgment







1.


The third paragraph of Article 288 TFEU must be interpreted as precluding the disapplication by a national court, in a dispute between private parties, of a provision of national law establishing an indirect tax contrary to a clear, precise and unconditional provision of a directive that has not been transposed or has been incorrectly transposed, unless national law provides otherwise or unless the entity against which that inconsistency of the aforementioned tax is relied upon is subject to the authority or control of the State or possesses special powers beyond those which result from the normal rules applicable to relations between private parties.










2.


The principle of effectiveness must be interpreted as precluding national legislation that does not allow a final consumer to seek directly from the Member State reimbursement of the additional economic burden which that consumer has borne as a result of the passing on by a supplier, in accordance with an option conferred on that supplier by national legislation, of a tax which the latter had itself unduly paid, but which allows such a consumer to bring only a civil action for recovery of sums paid but not due against such a supplier, where the undue nature of that payment is the consequence of that tax being contrary to a clear, precise and unconditional provision of a directive that has not been transposed or has been incorrectly transposed, and where, because it is impossible to rely on a directive as such in proceedings between private parties, that ground for unlawfulness cannot validly be relied on in the context of such an action.






(1)  
            OJ C 276, 18.7.2022.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/3279/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)