Case C-524/24: Action brought on 30 July 2024 – Italian Republic v Republic of Austria
Date: 2024-07-30
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Tyrol, carriage of goods, free movement of goods, infringement procedure (EU), large vehicle, motorway, road traffic, trade restriction, trans-European network, transport network








C_202405409EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2024/5409


16.9.2024






Action brought on 30 July 2024 – Italian Republic v Republic of Austria


(Case C-524/24)

(C/2024/5409)
Language of the case: German

Parties


Applicant: Italian Republic (represented by: G. Palmieri, acting as Agent, and by G. Caselli, S. Fiorentino and G. Galluzzo, Avvocati dello Stato)

Defendant: Republic of Austria

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:






1.


declare that:






(a)


the Republic of Austria infringed its obligations under Articles 34 and 35 TFEU by adopting paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Verordnung A 12 Inntalautobahn – Nachtfahrverbot für Schwerfahrzeuge, (1) which prohibits the cross-border traffic of certain heavy goods vehicles on a section of the A 12 motorway at certain times during the night;










(b)


the Republic of Austria infringed its obligations under Articles 34 and 35 TFEU by adopting paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Verordnung A 12 Inntalautobahn – Sektorales Fahrverbot, (2) which prohibits the carriage of certain goods on a section of the A 12 motorway, including in relation to the exemption from the ban for vehicles that comply with Euro class VI and that were registered for the first time after 31 August 2018;










(c)


the Republic of Austria infringed its obligations under Articles 34 and 35 TFEU by adopting the Verordnung über den Winterfahrverbotskalender 2023, (3) which prohibits, on all Saturdays in the winter months from 7.00 to 15.00 on the A 12 and A 13 motorways, the traffic of certain heavy goods vehicles travelling to Italy or Germany or to a country to be reached via Italy or Germany;










(d)


the Republic of Austria infringed its obligations under Article 34 TFEU by adopting measures that have the effect of restricting traffic by limiting the number of lorries which may enter the A 12 motorway near Kufstein to a maximum of 300 lorries per hour on certain days (‘dosing’);














2.


order the Republic of Austria to pay the costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

The Austrian A 12 and A 13 motorways form part of the so-called ‘Brenner axis’, a section of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor of the trans-European transport network.
The action brought by the Italian Republic is directed against four measures introduced in the Austrian Province of Tyrol, all of which are intended to limit the traffic of heavy duty vehicles used for the carriage of goods on the A 12 and A 13 motorways: a night traffic ban, a sectoral traffic prohibition, a winter traffic ban and the restriction of traffic by means of ‘dosing’. A separate plea is devoted to each of those four measures, alleging, respectively, an infringement of the free movement of goods (Articles 34 and 35 TFEU). (4)

Overall, the action seeks to establish that the Republic of Austria, despite two judgments of the Court of Justice in Cases C-320/03 and C-28/09, (5) maintained measures that have the effect of unlawfully restricting the free movement of goods and introduced others that are, in turn, measures having equivalent effect to prohibited quantitative restrictions on imports and exports and that aggravate the overall infringement of the fundamental freedom concerned.


(1)  Regulation of the First Minister of Tyrol of 27 October 2010 adopting a night traffic ban for heavy goods vehicles on the A12 motorway in the Inn valley (night traffic ban for heavy goods vehicles, LGBl. No 64/2010, as amended by LGBl. No 141/2021).

(2)  Regulation of the First Minister of Tyrol of 18 May 2016 prohibiting the long-distance carriage of certain goods on a section of the A 12 motorway in the Inn valley (sectoral traffic prohibition, LGBl. No 44/2016, as amended by LGBl. No 48/2023).

(3)  Regulation of the Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology prohibiting the traffic of lorries on the A 12 motorway in the Inn valley and on the A 13 Brenner motorway on certain Saturdays during the winter of 2023 (2023 winter traffic ban schedule, BGBl. II No 3/2023).

(4)  The fourth plea is based only on Article 34 TFEU.

(5)  Judgments of 15 November 2005, Commission v Austria, C-320/03, EU:C:2005:684, and of 21 December 2011, Commission v Austria, C-28/09, EU:C:2011:854.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/5409/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)