Brussels, 27/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The special 0.9% tax on turnover imposed by France on certain telecommunications operators to fund the financial losses in public channels related to the withdrawal of advertising (Copé tax) and the 3% excise duty on mobile telephone service prices imposed by Malta comply with the authorisation directive on electronic communications networks and services (2002/20/EC). Member states can now impose non-administrative taxes on the provision of electronic communication services. This is the thrust of two different decisions made by the European Court of Justice on Thursday, 27 June.
In the French case (C-485/11), the European Commission said that the tax (see above) contravened the directive in so far as it: - constitutes an administrative charge levied on the basis of factors relating to the operator's activities or turnover, not on the basis of the actual costs incurred as a result of the authorisation system and the charge is not intended to finance the activities of the national regulatory authority. The Court rejects these claims because the trigger for the charge in question is linked neither to the general authorisation procedure for access to the electronic telecommunications services market nor to the grant of a right to use radio frequencies or numbers. Indeed, that charge relates to the operator's activities, which consist in providing electronic communications services to end users in France (the tax is imposed only on holders of a general autorisation already providing services on the communication services market to end users). In those circumstances, the charge at issue does not constitute an administrative charge within the meaning of the directive and does not therefore fall within its scope.
In the Maltese case (C-71/12), in response to the Maltese Constitutional Court, the European Court of Justice affirms that custom duty is not an administrative tax contrary to the directive and that, as in the French case, the trigger is linked not to a general authorisation procedure for access to the electronic telecommunications services market but to the use of mobile telephony services provided by operators and which is borne by the user of such services. (FG/transl.fl)