Tax & Legal

The Federal Court of Justice has asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling whether Art. 101 TFEU precludes a provision in national law according to which a company that has been fined for a breach of antitrust law can take recourse against its managing directors or board members.

The European Court of Justice decided today that the Commission must pay interest on fines it has unduly imposed in competition matters and which it has provisionally collected. That interest is intended to compensate, at a standard rate, the undertaking concerned for the loss of the amount in question.

In two judgments the European Court of Justice (ECJ) clarified the conditions under which national supervisory authorities may impose an administrative fine following an infringement of the General Data Protection Regulation. In particular, it held that the imposition of such a fine requires that there be wrongful conduct; in other words, that the infringement has been committed intentionally or negligently.

In a Hungarian case the European Court of Justice had to review the obligation of the Member States to provide for effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for failure to comply with the customs legislation and held that a fine corresponding to 50% of the shortfall in customs duties is in accordance with the principle of proportionality.

The European Commission has fined Rabobank for participating in a cartel concerning the trading of certain Euro-denominated bonds, together with Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank was not fined as it revealed the cartel to the Commission under the leniency program.

According to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) the major British bank HSBC does not have to pay a substantial fine imposed by the Commission in 2016 regarding an infringement of competition law. The possibility of a slightly smaller fine, on the other hand, is still real. In its judgment the ECJ nevertheless confirmed that HSBC had participated in a single and continuous infringement consisting of restricting or distorting competition in the Euro Interest Rate Derivatives (EIRD) sector.

The Supreme Tax Court has held that no portion of a European Commission fine for a cartel offence can be deducted, unless the fine was set specifically to absorb the economic benefit obtained.

The Supreme Tax Court has held that the payment by the employer of a fine levied on an employee cannot be for a valid business reason and is therefore a taxable benefit subject to payroll withholding tax.

The ECJ has held that the principle of not trying a person for the second time does not exclude a criminal charge on a person who has already borne an administrative penalty for the same offence.