CELEX: 62009CA0398
Language: en
Date: 2011-09-06 00:00:00
Title: Case C-398/09: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 6 September 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Østre Landsret (Denmark)) — Lady & Kid A/S, Direct Nyt ApS, A/S Harald Nyborg Isenkram- og Sportsforretning, KID-Holding A/S v Skatteministeriet (Refusal to reimburse a tax paid in error — Unjust enrichment arising from the link between the introduction of that tax and the abolition of other taxes)

22.10.2011   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 311/7
            
         Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 6 September 2011 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Østre Landsret (Denmark)) — Lady & Kid A/S, Direct Nyt ApS, A/S Harald Nyborg Isenkram- og Sportsforretning, KID-Holding A/S v Skatteministeriet
   (Case C-398/09) (1)
   
   (Refusal to reimburse a tax paid in error - Unjust enrichment arising from the link between the introduction of that tax and the abolition of other taxes)
   2011/C 311/08
   Language of the case: Danish
   
      Referring court
   
   Østre Landsret
   
      Parties to the main proceedings
   
   
      Applicants: Lady & Kid A/S, Direct Nyt ApS, A/S Harald Nyborg Isenkram- og Sportsforretning, KID-Holding A/S
   
      Defendant: Skatteministeriet
   
      Re:
   
   Reference for preliminary ruling — Østre Landsret — Interpretation of the judgment of the Court in Joined Cases C-192/95 to C-218/95 Comateb and Others and of the principles of Community law governing unjust enrichment — Refusal to reimburse a national tax held to be incompatible with Community law, on grounds of unjust enrichment arising from the direct link between the introduction of the unlawful tax and the abolishment of other taxes charged on another basis — Non-reimbursement having the effect of placing product importers at a disadvantage in relation to purchasers of similar domestic products due to the proportionally greater payment of the unlawful tax by the former as compared to the latter.
   
      Operative part of the judgment
   
   The rules of European Union law on recovery of sums wrongly paid must be interpreted to the effect that recovery of sums wrongly paid can give rise to unjust enrichment only when the amounts wrongly paid by a taxpayer under a tax levied in a Member State in breach of European Union law have been passed on direct to the purchaser. Consequently, European Union law precludes a Member State from refusing reimbursement of a tax wrongfully levied on the ground that the amounts wrongly paid by the taxpayer have been set off by a saving made as a result of the concomitant abolition of other levies, since such a set-off cannot be regarded, from the point of view of European Union law, as an unjust enrichment as regards that tax.
   
      (1)  OJ C 312, 19.12.2009.