Request for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato (Italy) lodged on 23 August 2013 – Stanley International Betting Ltd and Stanleybet Malta Ltd v Ministero dell’Economia e delle Finanze and Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli di Stato

(Case C-463/13)

Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Consiglio di Stato

Parties to the main proceedings

Appellants: Stanley International Betting Ltd, Stanleybet Malta Ltd

Respondents: Ministero dell’Economia e delle Finanze, Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli di Stato

Questions referred

Are Article 49 et seq. TFEU and Article 56 et seq. TFEU and the principles laid down by the Court of Justice of the European Union in [Joined Cases C-72/10 and C-77/10 Costa and Cifone [2012] ECR I-0000] to be interpreted as precluding a call for tenders for the award of licences with a period of validity shorter than that of licences awarded in the past, where that tendering procedure has been launched in order to remedy the consequences of the unlawful exclusion of a certain number of operators from earlier tendering procedures?

Are Article 49 et seq. TFEU and Article 56 et seq. TFEU and the principles laid down by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Costa and Cifone to be interpreted as precluding the possibility that sufficient justification for the shorter period of validity of licences offered for tender, as compared with licences awarded in the past, can be found in the requirement for the licensing system to be reorganised through the alignment of licence expiry dates?