Type: Judgment

Authority: European Authorities: Euopean Union' Court of Justice

Date: 02/26/2013

Subject: The Court, having explained the field of application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, affirmed that the principle preventing a person from being punished twice that that principle does not preclude a Member State from imposing, for the same acts of evading declaration obligations in the field of VAT, a combination of tax penalties and criminal penalties. It is only if the tax penalty is criminal in nature and has become final within the meaning of the Charter that the principle preventing a person from being punished twice precludes criminal proceedings in respect of the same acts from being brought against the same person. Moreover the Court underlined the conclusions to be drawn by a national court from a conflict that exists between national provisions and rights guaranteed by the Charter and it concluded that EU law precludes a judicial practice which makes the obligation for a national court to disapply any provision contrary to a fundamental right guaranteed by the Charter conditional upon that infringement being clear from the text of the Charter or the relevant case-law, since it withholds from the national court the power to assess fully, with, as the case may be, the cooperation of the Court of Justice, whether that provision is compatible with the Charter.

Parties: Åkerberg Fransson

Classification: Justice - Art. 50 Right not to be tried or punished twice in criminal proceedings for the same criminal offence

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