On October 6, 2015 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in Case C‑346/13 Ville de Mons versus Base Company SA, formerly KPN Group Belgium SA (ECLI:EU:C:2015:649).

Does Article 13 of [the Authorisation Directive] preclude local authorities from introducing a tax, for budgetary or other reasons, on the economic activity of telecommunications operators, in the form of the presence on their territory of [mobile radiotelecommunications] pylons, masts or antennas used for the purposes of that activity?

The dispute in the main proceedings and the question referred for a preliminary ruling

·         According to the documents before the Court, Base Company is the operator of a public telecommunications network and, for that purpose, owns and operates a network of pylons supporting telecommunications antennas for mobile telephones in the city of Mons.

·         The authorities of the city of Mons issued Base Company with three notices of assessment pursuant to the tax regulation, imposing the tax at issue in the main proceedings in respect of the 2008 fiscal year in a total amount of EUR 7 500. An objection was lodged against those notices of assessment with the local authority of the city of Mons. After that objection had been rejected, an action was brought against the notices of assessment at the Tribunal de première instance de Mons (Court of First Instance, Mons), which annulled them. The city of Mons has brought an appeal against that judgment before the referring court. That court has doubts as to the applicability of Article 13 of the Authorisation Directive to the case in the main proceedings.

·         In those circumstances, the cour d’appel de Mons decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the following question to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling:

‘Does Article 13 of [the Authorisation Directive] preclude local authorities from introducing a tax, for budgetary or other reasons, on the economic activity of telecommunications operators, in the form of the presence on their territory of [mobile radiotelecommunications] pylons, masts or antennas used for the purposes of that activity?’

The CJEU ruled as follows:

Article 13 of Directive 2002/20/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on the authorisation of electronic communications networks and services (Authorisation Directive) must be interpreted as not precluding a tax, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, being imposed on the owner of free-standing structures, such as transmission pylons or masts intended to support the antennas required for the functioning of the mobile telecommunication network, and which it was not possible to place on an existing site. 

For further information click here to be forwarded to the text of the ruling as published on the website of the CJEU, which will open in a new window.

Did you know that in our section CJEU Rulings we have made a selection of rulings of the CJEU? We have organized these rulings based on the subject they relate to (e.g. Freedom of establishment, Free movement of capital, Indirect taxes on the raising of capital, etc).

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