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62001J0383 European Court reports 2003 Page I-06065 6 34 In the present case, since a charge on the registration of new motor vehicles, such as the Danish registration duty at issue in the main proceedings, is manifestly of a fiscal nature and is charged not by reason of the vehicle crossing the frontier of the Member State which introduced the charge, but upon first registration of the vehicle in the territory of that State, the charge must be regarded as part of a general system of internal dues on goods and thus examined in the light of Article 90 EC. 35 The fact that a charge of that sort is in fact imposed solely on imported new vehicles, because there is no domestic production, is not such as to cause it to be characterised as a charge having equivalent effect, for the purposes of Article 25 EC, rather than internal taxation, within the meaning of Article 90 EC, since it is part of a general system of internal dues applied systematically to categories of vehicles in accordance with objective criteria irrespective of the origin of the products (see, to that effect, Case 90/79 Commission v France [1981] ECR 283, paragraph 14). 36 Since the applicability of Article 90 EC in the main proceedings is thus established, it should be noted that that article expressly prohibits the imposition on products from other Member States of internal taxation in excess of that imposed on similar domestic products or internal taxation of such a nature as to afford indirect protection to other products (see Commission v Denmark, paragraph 8). 37 It should also be noted that, as paragraph 9 of Commission v Denmark shows, the aim of Article 90 EC as a whole is to ensure the free movement of goods between the Member States in normal conditions of competition by the elimination of all forms of protection which may result from the application of internal taxation that discriminates against products from other Member States. Thus Article 90 EC must guarantee the complete neutrality of internal taxation as regards competition between domestic products and imported products. 38 On the other hand, Article 90 EC cannot be invoked against internal taxation imposed on imported products where there is no similar or competing domestic production. In particular, it does not provide a basis for censuring the excessiveness of the level of taxation which the Member States might adopt for particular products, in the absence of any discriminatory or protective effect (see Commission v Denmark, paragraph 10). 39 At present there is no domestic production of cars in Denmark, as has already been noted in paragraph 17 above, nor indeed of any products liable to compete with cars. In those circumstances, it must be concluded that the Danish registration duty imposed on new motor vehicles is not covered by the prohibitions laid down in Article 90 EC. 40 It is true, as DBI pointed out, that the Court held, in paragraph 12 of Commission v Denmark, that it is not permissible for the Member States to impose on products which, in the absence of comparable domestic production, escape the application of the prohibitions contained in Article 90 EC charges of such an amount that the free movement of goods within the common market would be impeded as far as those goods were concerned. 41 It is however sufficient in that regard to state that, in any event, the figures communicated by the national court as to the number of new vehicles registered in Denmark, and thus imported into that Member State, do not in any way show that the free movement of that type of goods between Denmark and the other Member States is impeded. 42 In those circumstances, it cannot be considered that a charge such as the Danish registration duty has ceased to be internal taxation, within the meaning of Article 90 EC, and should be classified as a measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction, for the purposes of Article 28 EC, nor is it appropriate to examine the scope of the proviso adopted by the Court in paragraphs 12 and 13 of Commission v Denmark. © An extract from a JUSTIS database 44
62001J0383 European Court reports 2003 Page I-06065 7 43 In conclusion, the answer to the first question referred for a preliminary ruling must be that: - a charge on the registration of new motor vehicles established by a Member State which does not have any domestic production of vehicles, such as that laid down by the lov om registreringsafgift af motorkøretøjer (Law on registration duty on motor vehicles), in the version resulting from Consolidating Law No 222 of 14 April 1999, constitutes internal taxation whose compatibility with Community law must be examined in the light not of Article 28 EC, but of Article 90 EC; - Article 90 EC must be interpreted as not precluding such a charge. The second question referred for a preliminary ruling 44 Having regard to the considerations set out in connection with the first question, it is not necessary to examine the justifications put forward in the alternative by the Danish Government in support of the compatibility of the Danish registration duty with Community law, with the result that the second question becomes devoid of purpose. DOCNUM 62001J0383 AUTHOR Court of Justice of the European Communities FORM Judgment TREATY European Economic Community TYPDOC 6 ; CJUS ; cases ; 2001 ; J ; judgment PUBREF European Court reports 2003 Page I-06065 DOC 2003/06/17 LODGED 2001/10/05 JURCIT 61967J0031 : N 16 61978J0120 : N 22 61979J0090 : N 35 61988J0047 : N 13 15 16 19 21 22 36 - 38 40 42 61988J0132 : N 20 61990J0078 : N 32 11997E023 : N 3 32 11997E025 : N 4 32 33 35 11997E028 : N 1 5 6 16 19 20 22 23 32 42 43 11997E029 : N 5 6 11997E030 : N 1 6 22 11997E090 : N 7 8 13 - 15 20 32 - 36 39 40 42 43 61998J0228 : N 19 20 32 36 - 38 61999J0234 : N 33 CONCERNS Interprets 11997E028 © An extract from a JUSTIS database 45
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