Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber) of 6 October 2020 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Superior de Justicia del País Vasco – Spain) – Vodafone España SAU v Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa

(Case C-443/19) ¹

(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Electronic communications networks and services – Directive 2002/20/EC – Article 13 – Fee for rights of use for radio frequencies – Sectoral national legislation subjecting the allocation of public radio frequencies to a charge – National legislation subjecting the grant of administrative concessions on public assets to a tax on the transfer of assets)

Language of the case: Spanish

Referring court

Tribunal Superior de Justicia del País Vasco

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Vodafone España SAU

Defendant: Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa

Operative part of the judgment

Article 13 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 (Authorisation Directive), as amended by Directive 2009/140/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009, must be interpreted as not precluding a Member State, whose legislation provides that the right to use radio frequencies is subject to a charge for the allocation of public radio frequencies, from also subjecting the grant of administrative concessions in that field to a tax on the transfer of assets applicable generally to the grant of administrative concessions on public assets under legislation that is not specifically applicable to the electronic communications sector, where the chargeable event giving rise to that tax is linked to the granting of rights of use for radio frequencies, provided that that charge and that tax, taken together, satisfy the conditions set out in that article, in particular, the condition relating to the proportionate nature of the amount collected in return for the right to use radio frequencies, which is for the referring court to ascertain.

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¹ OJ C 328, 30.9.2019.