CELEX: 62019CN0856
Language: en
Date: 2019-11-25 00:00:00
Title: Case C-856/19: Action brought on 25 November 2019 — European Commission v Hungary

20.1.2020   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 19/37
            
         
      Action brought on 25 November 2019 — European Commission v Hungary
      (Case C-856/19)
      (2020/C 19/39)
      Language of the case: Hungarian
      
         Parties
      
      
         Applicant: European Commission (represented by: C. Perrin and A. Sipos, acting as Agents)
      
         Defendant: Hungary
      
         Form of order sought
      
      The Commission claims that the Court should:
      
                  —
               
               
                  declare that Hungary has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 10(2) and (3) of Council Directive 2011/64/EU of 21 June 2011 on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco, (1) by levying, after the expiration of the transitional period granted until 31 December 2017, an overall excise duty of less than 60 % of the weighted average retail selling price of cigarettes released for consumption and levying an excise duty of less than EUR 115 per 1 000 cigarettes.
               
            
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                  order Hungary to pay the costs.
               
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
      
      Pursuant to Article 10(2) of Council Directive 2011/64/EU of 21 June 2011 on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco, as of 1 January 2014, the overall excise duty on cigarettes is to represent at least 60 % of the weighted average retail selling price of cigarettes released for consumption, unless the excise duty levied amounts to at least EUR 115 per 1 000 cigarettes. Since Hungary levies an excise duty of less than EUR 115 per 1 000 cigarettes, that Member State is required to establish an excise duty at a rate equivalent to or greater than 60 % of the weighted average price.
      The third subparagraph of Article 10(2) of Directive 2011/64/EU granted Hungary and seven other Member States a transitional period until 31 December 2017 in order to reach that rate of excise duty. Under Article 10(2) and (3) of Directive 2011/64/EU, those Member States were required to reach the abovementioned excise duty thresholds by the end of that period.
      The Commission claims that, at the end of the transitional period, Hungary did not reach the excise duty thresholds set out in Article 10(2) and (3) of Directive 2011/64/EU and that, as of 31 December 2017, that Member State continues to levy an excise duty that is below the thresholds established in that directive.
      
         (1)  Council Directive 2011/64/EU of 21 June 2011 on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco (OJ 2011 L 176, p. 24).