The Court of Justice of the European Union has rejected the European Commission’s action against the mechanism for reducing the rate of excise duty on petrol purchased in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia in a judgment handed down on Thursday 14 January (Case C-63/19).
As final consumers of fuel, the residents of this region benefit from a price discount “at the pump”, while the regional administration reimburses service station operators an amount equivalent to the discounts granted to consumers.
According to the European court, the Commission has not proved that this mechanism constitutes an unlawful reduction, in the form of a refund of excise duties, in violation of the Taxation of Energy Products Directive (2003/96).
In order to do so, it would have had to demonstrate the existence of a link, at least indirectly, between the amounts refunded to service station operators (corresponding to the discounts enjoyed by fuel consumers) and State revenue from the collection of excise duties.
See the judgment: http://bit.ly/35BAUjJ (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)