Cura Anlagen GmbH v Auto Service Leasing GmbH (ASL).
Date: 2002-03-21
16 According to settled case-law, it is solely for the national court before which the dispute has been brought, and which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine in the light of the particular circumstances of the case both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court. Nevertheless, the Court has held that it cannot give a preliminary ruling on a question submitted by a national court where it is quite obvious that the ruling sought by that court on the interpretation or validity of Community law bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose, where the problem is hypothetical, or where the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it (see, in particular, Case C-36/99 Idéal Tourisme [2000] ECR I-6049, paragraph 20, and the case-law cited therein).
18 In relation to that question, this Court would point out that leasing constitutes a service within the meaning of Article 50 EC. It consists of an economic activity provided for consideration. The fact that that activity implies the handing over of goods by the lessor to the lessee, in the main proceedings in this case a motor vehicle, cannot invalidate that classification since the supply relates not so much to the goods themselves as to their use by the lessee, the goods in question remaining the property of the lessor.
19 The Court of Justice has, moreover, already held that the leasing of vehicles constitutes a supply of services within the meaning of Article 9 of the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes - Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment (OJ 1977 L 145, p. 1; the Sixth VAT Directive), those services consisting principally in negotiating, drawing up, signing and administering contracts and in making the vehicles concerned, which remain the property of the leasing company, physically available to customers (Case C-190/95 ARO Lease [1997] ECR I-4383, paragraphs 11 and 18).
22 It should be noted in that respect that, pursuant to Article 234 EC, where a question on the interpretation of the Treaty or of subordinate acts of the institutions of the Community is raised before any court or tribunal of a Member State, that court or tribunal may, if it considers that a decision on the question is necessary to enable it to give judgment, request the Court of Justice to give a ruling thereon (see, in particular, Case C-412/93 Leclerc-Siplec [1995] ECR I-179, paragraph 9).
23 In the context of that procedure for making a reference, the national court, which alone has direct knowledge of the facts of the case, is in the best position to assess, with full knowledge of the matter before it, the need for a preliminary ruling to enable it to give judgment (see, in particular, Leclerc-Siplec, paragraph 10).
26 In that respect, the Court of Justice has held that, in order to determine whether it has jurisdiction, it must examine the conditions in which the case has been referred to it by the national court. The spirit of cooperation which must prevail in the preliminary ruling procedure requires the national court to have regard to the function entrusted to the Court of Justice, which is to assist in the administration of justice in the Member States and not to deliver advisory opinions on general or hypothetical questions (Case 149/82 Robards [1983] ECR 171, paragraph 19; Case C-83/91 Meilicke [1992] ECR I-4871, paragraph 25).
29 According to consistent case-law, Article 49 EC precludes the application of any national legislation which without objective justification impedes a provider of services from actually exercising that freedom (see, in particular, Case C-381/93 Commission v France [1994] ECR I-5145, paragraph 16).
30 Article 49 EC likewise precludes the application of any national legislation which has the effect of making the provision of services between Member States more difficult than the provision of services purely within one Member State (Commission v France, cited above, paragraph 17).
31 However, Article 46 EC, which applies here by virtue of Article 55 EC, allows restrictions justified for reasons of public policy, public security or public health, provided that the measures taken pursuant to that article are not disproportionate to the intended objective. As an exception to a fundamental principle of the Treaty, Article 46 EC must be interpreted in such a way that its effects are limited to that which is necessary in order to protect the interests which it seeks to safeguard (see, to that effect, Case 352/85 Bond van Adverteerders and Others [1988] ECR 2085, paragraph 36).
32 Moreover, according to the settled case-law of the Court, restrictions on the freedom to provide services deriving from national measures which apply without distinction are acceptable only if those measures are justified by overriding reasons relating to the public interest and comply with the principle of proportionality, that is to say are suitable for securing the attainment of the objective which they pursue and do not go beyond what is strictly necessary in order to attain it (to that effect, see in particular Case C-55/94 Gebhard [1995] ECR I-4165, paragraph 37, and Case C-67/98 Zenatti [1999] ECR I-7289, paragraph 29).
37 There is no dispute that the obligation to register in the Member State where they are used vehicles which have been leased from an undertaking established in another Member State has the effect of making cross-border leasing activities more difficult.
38 It therefore needs to be examined whether the restriction arising from that obligation may be justified.
40 It should be recalled in that respect that, save for the specific situation of vehicles which are imported into the Community temporarily and motor vehicles intended exclusively for the road transport of goods with an authorised load of 12 tonnes or more, which are not at issue in the main proceedings, the taxation of motor vehicles has not been harmonised and differs considerably from one Member State to another. Member States are therefore free to exercise their powers of taxation in that area, provided they do so in compliance with Community law. It is lawful for them to allocate those powers of taxation amongst themselves on the basis of criteria such as the territory in which a vehicle is actually used or the residence of the driver, which are various components of the territoriality principle, and to conclude agreements amongst themselves to ensure that a vehicle is subject to indirect taxation in only one of the signatory States.
41 In that respect, registration appears to be the natural corollary of the exercise of those powers of taxation. It facilitates supervision both for the Member State of registration and for the other Member States, for which registration in one Member State constitutes proof of payment in that State of taxes on motor vehicles.
42 Therefore, in a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, namely where a vehicle leased from a company established in one Member State is actually used on the road network of another Member State, the latter may impose an obligation for that vehicle to be registered in its territory.
59 It should also be remembered that, although road safety constitutes an overriding reason in the public interest capable of justifying the hindrance in question (Case C-55/93 Van Schaik [1994] ECR I-4837, paragraph 19), Member States must, when examining the roadworthiness and safety of vehicles and their environmentally-friendly quality, comply with the relevant Community provisions.
62 Thus, when a vehicle has undergone roadworthiness testing in a Member State, the principle of equivalence and mutual recognition laid down by Article 3(2) of Directive 96/96 requires all the other Member States to recognise the certificate issued on that occasion, without that preventing them from requiring additional tests for the purposes of registration in their territory, provided those tests are not already covered by that certificate.
63 In addition, as a result of the judgment in Case 50/85 Schloh [1986] ECR 1855 (paragraphs 13 to 16), which concerns the free movement of goods, the fact that a vehicle has been used on the public highway since the last roadworthiness test may make it justifiable, at the time when it is registered in another Member State, to verify for purposes of protecting the health and life of humans that it has not been in an accident and is in a good state of repair, provided a similar inspection is required of vehicles of national origin presented for registration in the same circumstances.
68 In that regard, there can be no doubt that a consumption tax such as that at issue in the main proceedings may be intended to serve the general interest of discouraging the purchase or possession of vehicles with heavy fuel consumption.
69 However, such a tax is contrary to the principle of proportionality in so far as the aim which it pursues might be achieved by introducing a tax proportionate to the duration of the registration of the vehicle in the State where it is used, which would ensure there was no discrimination with respect to amortisation of the tax against vehicle leasing undertakings established in other Member States.