Judgment of the Court Grand Chamber of 20 September 2022, VD and SR, C-339/20 and C-397/20

• Date: 20 September 2022
• Year: 2022

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company from carrying on its business through a permanent establishment situated in another

Member State. That difference in treatment is permissible only if it concerns situations which are not

objectively comparable, or if it is justified by an overriding reason in the public interest proportionate

to that objective.

In that respect, as regards measures laid down by a Member State in order to prevent or mitigate the

double taxation of a resident company’s profits, companies which have a permanent establishment in

another Member State are not, in principle, in a comparable situation to that of companies

possessing a resident permanent establishment, except where the national tax legislation itself treats

those two categories of establishment in the same way for the purposes of taking into account t he

losses and profits made by them.

However, where, as in the present case, the Member State in which a company is resident has waived,

pursuant to a double taxation convention, the exercise of its power to tax the profits of the non-

resident permanent establishment of that company, situated in another Member State, the situation

of a resident company possessing such a permanent establishment is not comparable to that of a

resident company possessing a resident permanent establishment in the light of the measures taken

by the first Member State in order to prevent or mitigate the double taxation of resident companies’

profits and, symmetrically, the double deduction of their losses.

5. PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA

Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 20 September 2022, VD and SR, C-339/20 and C-

397/20

Link to the full text of the judgment

References for a preliminary ruling – Single Market for financial services – Market abuse – Insider dealing –

Directive 2003/6/EC – Article 12(2)(a) and (d) – Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 – Article 23(2)(g) and (h) –

Supervisory and investigatory powers of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) – General interest

objective seeking to protect the integrity of financial markets in the European Union and public

confidence in financial instruments – Option open to the AMF to require the traffic data records held by

an operator providing electronic communications services – Processing of personal data in the electronic

communications sector – Directive 2002/58/EC – Article 15(1) – Charter of Fundamental Rights of the

European Union – Articles 7, 8 and 11 and Article 52(1) – Confidentiality of communications –

Restrictions – Legislation providing for the general and indiscriminate retention of traffic data by

operators providing electronic communications services – Option for a national court to restrict the

temporal effects of a declaration of invalidity in respect of provisions of national law that are incompatible

with EU law – Precluded

Following an investigation by the Autorité des marchés financiers (Financial Markets Authority, France;

‘AMF’),

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criminal proceedings were brought against VD and SR, two natural persons charged with

insider dealing, concealment of insider dealing, aiding and abetting, corruption and money

laundering. In the course of that investigation, the AMF had used personal dat a from telephone calls

made by VD and SR, generated on the basis of the code des postes et des communications

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Investigation carried out under Article L.621-10 of the code monétaire et financier (Monetary and Financial Code), in the version applicable

to the disputes in the main proceedings.