Case C-421/23, ONSS (Forged A1 certificates): Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 23 January 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the cour d’appel de Liège – Belgium) – Criminal proceedings against EX (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Migrant workers – Social security – Applicable legislation – Posted workers – Documents in the form of A1 certificates allegedly issued by the institution competent to issue those certificates – Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 – Article 76(6) – Obligation of the authorities of the host Member State to initiate a dialogue and conciliation procedure for the purpose of determining whether fraud has occurred)
Date: 2025-01-23
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: employer, form, fraud, labour dispute, social security legislation, social-security contribution, social-security harmonisation, wage earner








C_202501514EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/1514


17.3.2025






Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 23 January 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the cour d’appel de Liège – Belgium) – Criminal proceedings against EX


(Case C-421/23,
                (1)
ONSS (Forged A1 certificates))

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Migrant workers - Social security - Applicable legislation - Posted workers - Documents in the form of A1 certificates allegedly issued by the institution competent to issue those certificates - Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 - Article 76(6) - Obligation of the authorities of the host Member State to initiate a dialogue and conciliation procedure for the purpose of determining whether fraud has occurred)
(C/2025/1514)
Language of the case: French

Referring court

Cour d’appel de Liège

Party in the main proceedings

EX

in the presence of: Ministère public, Office national de sécurité sociale (ONSS)

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the coordination of social security systems, as amended by Regulation (EU) No 465/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012,
must be interpreted as meaning that in a situation in which nationals of a Member State employed by a contractor established in that Member State carry out, by means of documents in the form of A1 certificates purportedly issued by the institution of that Member State competent to issue that type of certificate, work on behalf of that contractor in another Member State, in respect of which that institution collects social security contributions, that regulation is to apply even where, in the course of criminal proceedings brought against that contractor before the courts of the latter Member State for the commission of social security fraud, those courts find, without being contradicted by the same contractor, that those documents are false documents.










2.


Article 76(6) of Regulation No 883/2004, as amended by Regulation No 465/2012,
must be interpreted as meaning that in a situation in which nationals of a Member State employed by a contractor established in that Member State carry out, by means of documents in the form of A1 certificates purportedly issued by the institution of that Member State competent to issue that type of certificate, work on behalf of that contractor in another Member State, in respect of which that institution collects social security contributions, the dialogue and conciliation procedure referred to in that provision constitutes a compulsory precondition for a finding, by a court of the latter Member State, seised in the context of criminal proceedings brought against that contractor for having fraudulently made use of the posting of those workers, under cover of false A1 certificates, of such fraud.






(1)  OJ C C/2023/953.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/1514/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)