Asunto C-197/04: Recurso interpuesto el 30 de abril de 2004 por la Comisión de las Comunidades Europeas contra la República Federal de Alemania

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Published date: 26 June 2004
• Celex Number: C2004/168/06

26.6.2004 EN Official Journal of the European Union C 168/3

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Action brought on 30 April 2004 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Federal Republic of Germany

(Case C-197/04)

(2004/C 168/06)

An action against the Federal Republic of Germany was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 30 April 2004 by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by K. Gross, with an address for service in Luxembourg.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

1. declare that, by applying the tax rate for fine-cut tobacco for self-rolled cigarettes to rolls of tobacco sold under the name ‘West Single Packs’, the Federal Republic of Germany has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 4(1)(b) of Council Directive 95/59/EC (1) on taxes other than turnover taxes which affect the consumption of manufactured tobacco and under the first paragraph of Article 2 of Council Directive 92/79/EEC (2) of 19 October 1992 on the approximation of taxes on cigarettes;

2. order the Federal Republic of Germany to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments:

In the Commission's view, the rolls of tobacco sold on the German market under the name ‘West Single Packs’, which consumers can wrap in a separately sold cigarette paper with a filter by simple non-industrial handling, are cigarettes within the meaning of Article 4(1)(b) of Council Directive 95/59/EG and, accordingly, must be taxed as such.

The German provisions applying the tax rate for fine-cut tobacco for self-rolled cigarettes to ‘West Single Packs’ thus infringe Article 4(1) of Council Directive 95/59/EC and the first paragraph of Article 2 of Council Directive 92/79/EEC.

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(1) OJ 1995 L 291, p. 40.

(2) OJ 1992 L 316, p. 8.

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