Brussels, 16/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - By requiring certification bodies to have their registered offices in Italy, the Italian legislation is against EU law, the Court of Justice of the EU stated in a judgment (case C-593/13) returned on Tuesday 16 June.
The Italian legislation requires the registered office of certification companies (SOA) to be located on Italian soil. The Italian government justified this requirement to the Court of Justice on the grounds that SOAs carry out activities connected with the exercise of official authority, and should therefore be exempt from the scope of application of the “services” directive (2006/123/EC) and of the TFEU.
The Court rejected this argument. Firstly, it noted that the activities of SOAs do come within the framework of the directive in question, as these activities are profit-making and are carried out under conditions of competition and are therefore not directly and specifically connected with the exercise of official authority. However, the directive clearly states that setting requirements related to the location of the registered office is not permitted.
Secondly, the Court found that any justification on the basis of the principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) would run counter to the spirit of the directive, as it would reintroduce the possibility of a case-by-case examination of the restrictions on the freedom of establishment. An examination of this kind would be extremely complex, the Court states, reiterating that the TFEU does not prevent the legislator of the Union, as is the case with the “services” directive, which gives effect to a fundamental freedom, from restricting the possibilities for the member states to derogate from it in a manner adversely affecting the proper functioning of the single market. (Jan Kordys)