Recheio - Cash & Carry SA v Fazenda Pública/Registo Nacional de Pessoas Colectivas, and Ministério Público.
Date: 2004-06-17
12. On this point it must be borne in mind that the Court may, of its own motion, on a proposal from the Advocate General or at the request of the parties, order that the oral procedure should be reopened in accordance with Article 61 of its Rules of Procedure, if it considers that it lacks sufficient information or that the case must be dealt with on the basis of an argument which has not been debated between the parties (see, inter alia, Case C-299/99 Philips  [2002] ECR I-5475, paragraph 20; Case C-184/01 P Hirschfeldt v AEE  [2002] ECR I-10173, paragraph 30, and Case C-209/01 Schilling and Fleck-Schilling [2003] ECR I-0000, paragraph 19).
15. It must be borne in mind that Member States are in principle required to repay charges levied in breach of Community law (Joined Cases C-192/95 to C-218/95 Comateb and Others  [1997] ECR I-165, paragraph 20).
16. The Court has also observed on several occasions that the problem of the repayment of charges paid though not due is settled in different ways in the various Member States, and even within a single Member State, according to the various kinds of taxes or charges in question. In certain cases, objections or claims of that kind are subject to specific procedural conditions and time-limits under the law with regard both to complaints submitted to the tax authorities and to legal proceedings. In other cases, claims for repayment of charges paid but not due must be brought before the ordinary courts, mainly in the form of actions for recovery of sums paid but not owed, such claims being available for varying lengths of time, in some cases for the limitation period laid down under the general law (see, in particular, Case C-343/96 Dilexport  [1999] ECR I-579, paragraph 24).
17. This diversity between national systems derives mainly from the lack of Community rules on the refund of national charges levied though not due. In such circumstances, it is for the domestic legal system of each Member State to designate the courts and tribunals having jurisdiction and to lay down the detailed procedural rules governing actions for safeguarding rights which individuals derive from Community law, provided, first, that such rules are not less favourable than those governing similar domestic actions (principle of equivalence) and, second, that they do not render virtually impossible or excessively difficult the exercise of rights conferred by Community law (principle of effectiveness) (see, in particular, Case C-231/96 Edis  [1998] ECR I-4951, paragraph 34).
18. As regards the latter principle, the Court has recognised that it is compatible with Community law to lay down reasonable time-limits for bringing proceedings in the interests of legal certainty, which protects both the taxpayer and the administration concerned ( Edis , paragraph 35).
20. While Edis  admittedly concerned a limitation period of three years from the date on which the charge was paid, that is to say, a distinctly longer period than that at issue in the main proceedings in this case, it follows also from that judgment and the Court’s settled case-law that the Member States remain at liberty to fix longer or shorter periods for repayment of sums paid though not due, on condition that they do not render virtually impossible or excessively difficult the exercise of rights conferred by the Community legal order.
23. So far as concerns Recheio’s argument that that period is not acceptable inasmuch as the Portuguese Republic had not transposed Directive 69/335 at the time the fees were paid, but only two years after Modelo , Community law does not prohibit a Member State which has not properly transposed Directive 69/335 from resisting actions for repayment of duties levied in contravention of that directive by relying on a national limitation period. Moreover, the fact that the Court of Justice has given a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the provision of Community law in question is as a rule immaterial in this respect (see, in particular, Edis,  paragraphs 20 and 47).