Case C-577/23: Judgment of the Court (Tenth Chamber) of 23 January 2025 – European Commission v Republic of Estonia (Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Article 258 TFEU – Guarantees of independence and resources for national competition authorities in order to implement Articles 101 and 102 TFEU – Directive (EU) 2019/1 – Failure to transpose and to notify the transposition measures – Article 260(3) TFEU – Financial penalties – Application for the imposition of a lump sum and a daily penalty payment)
Date: 2025-01-23
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: EU competition policy, competition law, national implementing measure, periodic penalty payment, restriction on competition, sanction (EU)








C_202501517EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/1517


17.3.2025






Judgment of the Court (Tenth Chamber) of 23 January 2025 – European Commission v Republic of Estonia


(Case C-577/23)
                (1)

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Article 258 TFEU - Guarantees of independence and resources for national competition authorities in order to implement Articles 101 and 102 TFEU - Directive (EU) 2019/1 - Failure to transpose and to notify the transposition measures - Article 260(3) TFEU - Financial penalties - Application for the imposition of a lump sum and a daily penalty payment)
(C/2025/1517)
Language of the case: Estonian

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: A. Keidel and K. Toomus, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Republic of Estonia (represented by: M. Kriisa, acting as Agent)

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Declares that, by failing to adopt, by expiry of the period laid down in the European Commission’s reasoned opinion of 29 September 2022, the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive (EU) 2019/1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market and, accordingly, by failing to communicate those provisions to the Commission, the Republic of Estonia failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 34 of that directive.










2.


Declares that, by failing to adopt, by the time of the Court’s examination of the facts, the necessary measures to transpose the provisions of Directive 2019/1 into its domestic law and, therefore to notify those measures to the European Commission, the Republic of Estonia persisted in its failure to fulfil its obligations.










3.


Orders the Republic of Estonia to pay the European Commission:






—


a lump sum of EUR 400 000;










—


in the event that the failure to fulfil obligations established in point 1 of the operative part were to persist on the date of delivery of the present judgment, a daily penalty payment of EUR 3 000 from that date until that Member State has brought that failure to an end.














4.


Orders the Republic of Estonia to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission.






(1)  OJ C C/2023/506.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/1517/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)