(October 10, 2014)

On October 9, 2014 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in case C-428/13 Ministero dell’Economia e delle Finanze and Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS) versus Yesmoke Tobacco SpA (ECLI:EU:C:2014:2263).

The following question was referred to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling:

Do Article 8(2) of Directive 95/59 … and Article 7(2) of Directive 2011/64 …, by providing, respectively, that the proportional rate and ad valorem rate, and the amount of the specific excise duty … must be the same for all cigarettes, preclude a provision of national law such as Article 39g(4) of the Legislative Decree …, which provides that the excise duty payable on cigarettes with a retail selling price lower than that of cigarettes in the most popular price category is to be 115% of the basic amount, thereby establishing an excise duty at a fixed minimum rate specific to cigarettes with a lower selling price and not a minimum amount of excise duty for all price categories of cigarettes, as permitted by Article 16(7) of Directive 95/59 … and Article 14(2) of Directive 2011/64 …?

The ECJ ruled as follows:

Articles 7(2) and 8(6) of Council Directive 2011/64/EU of 21 June 2011 on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco must be interpreted as precluding a provision of national law, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which, rather than establishing an identical minimum excise duty that is applicable to all cigarettes, establishes a minimum excise duty that is applicable only to cigarettes with a retail selling price lower than that of cigarettes in the most popular price category.

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