European Commission v Ireland.
Date: 2010-03-04
37. To that end, Article 8(1) of the directive provides that cigarettes manufactured in the Community and those imported from non-member countries are to be subject in each Member State to a proportional excise duty calculated on the maximum retail selling price, including customs duties, and also to a specific excise duty calculated per unit of the product ( Commission  v Greece , paragraph 19).
39. In that regard, Article 9(1) of Directive 95/59 provides that manufacturers, or, where appropriate, their representatives or authorised agents in the Community and importers of tobacco from non-member countries are to be free to determine the maximum retail selling price for each of their products, the aim being to ensure effective competition between them ( Commission  v Greece , paragraph 20). That provision seeks to ensure that the determination of the tax base of the proportional excise duty on tobacco products, that is the maximum retail selling price of those products, is subject to the same rules in all the Member States. It also aims, as the Advocate General states in point 40 of her Opinion, to maintain the freedom of the abovementioned economic operators, by which they may make effective use of the competitive advantage resulting from any lower cost prices.
40. The imposition of a minimum retail selling price by the public authorities thus means that the maximum retail selling price determined by manufacturers and importers cannot, in any event, be lower than that obligatory minimum price. Legislation imposing such a minimum price is therefore capable of undermining competition by preventing some of those producers or importers from taking advantage of lower cost prices so as to offer more attractive retail selling prices.
41. Consequently, a system of minimum retail selling prices for tobacco products cannot be regarded as compatible with Article 9(1) of Directive 95/59 unless it is structured in such a way as to ensure, in any event, that the competitive advantage which could result for some producers and importers of those products from lower cost prices is not impaired and, thus, competition is not distorted (see Case C‑197/08 Commission  v France  [2010] ECR I-0000, paragraph 38, and Case C‑198/08 Commission  v Austria  [2010] ECR I-0000, paragraph 30).
50. It should be pointed out, in that regard, that Article 30 EC cannot be understood as authorising measures other than the quantitative restrictions on imports and exports and the measures having equivalent effect envisaged by Articles 28 EC and 29 EC (see, to that effect Case C-302/00 Commission  v France  [2002] ECR I‑2055, paragraph 33). In the present case, the Commission has not alleged any infringement of Articles 28 EC or 29 EC.
54. That recital also explains that the level of taxation is a major factor in the price of tobacco products, which in turn influences consumers’ smoking habits. Equally, the Court has already held that fiscal legislation is an important and effective instrument for discouraging consumption of tobacco products and, therefore, for the protection of public health (Case C-140/05 Valeško  [2006] ECR I-10025, paragraph 58), and that the objective of ensuring that a high price level is fixed for those products may adequately be attained by increased taxation of those products, the excise duty increases sooner or later being reflected in an increase in the retail selling price, without undermining the freedom to determine prices  (see, to that effect, Commission  v Greece , paragraph 31).
55. Moreover, if the Member States wish to exclude once and for all any possibility for producers or importers to absorb, even temporarily, the impact of taxes on the retail selling price of manufactured tobacco products by selling them at a loss, it is inter alia open to them, while allowing those producers and importers to make effective use of the competitive advantage resulting from any lower cost prices, to prohibit the sale of manufactured tobacco products at a price below the sum of the cost price and all taxes (see Case C-197/08 Commission  v France , paragraph 53, and Commission  v Austria , paragraph 43).
60. Article 10 EC makes it clear that the Member States are required to cooperate in good faith with the enquiries of the Commission pursuant to Article 226 EC, and to provide the Commission with all the information requested for that purpose (see Case C-82/03 Commission  v Italy  [2004] ECR I‑6635, paragraph 15 and case-law cited).