Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 27 June 2013 – European Commission v French Republic

(Case C-485/11) ¹

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Electronic communications networks and services – Directive 2002/20/EC – Article 12 – Administrative charges applicable to undertakings holding general authorisations – National legislation – Electronic telecommunications operators – Requirement to pay an additional charge)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: A. Bordes and G. Braun, Agents)

Defendant: Republic of France (represented by: G. de Bergues and J.-S. Pilczer, Agents)

Interveners in support of the defendant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: N. Díaz Abad, Agent), Hungary (represented by: M.Z. Fehér, K. Szíjjártó, K. Molnár and A. Szilágyi, Agents)

Re:

Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Infringement of Article 12 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 (OJ 2002 L 108, p. 21) – Charges applicable to undertakings holding general authorisations - Compatibility of national legislation introducing an additional charge on electronic telecommunications operators

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action.

Orders the European Commission to pay the costs.

Orders the Kingdom of Spain and Hungary to bear their own costs.

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¹ OJ C 355, 3.12.2011.