Request for a preliminary ruling from the Cour administrative (Luxembourg) lodged on 18 December 2015 — Berlioz Investment Fund S.A. v Directeur de l’administration des Contributions directes
(Case C-682/15)
Language of the case: French
Referring court
Cour administrative
Parties to the main proceedings
Appellant: Berlioz Investment Fund S.A.
Respondent: Directeur de l’administration des Contributions directes
Questions referred
Is a Member State implementing EU law and thus rendering the Charter [of Fundamental Rights of the European Union] applicable in accordance with Article 51(1) thereof in a situation such as that in the main proceedings when it imposes an administrative pecuniary penalty on a person on account of that person’s alleged failure to fulfil his obligations to cooperate pursuant to an order requiring him to provide information (‘information order’) made by the competent national authority of that State under national procedural rules introduced for that purpose, in the context of that Member State’s execution, in its capacity as the requested State, of a request for exchange of information from another Member State that is based by the latter State, inter alia, on the provisions of Directive 2011/16 1 on the exchange of information on request?
In the event that it is established that the Charter is applicable to the present case, can a person rely on Article 47 of the Charter if he takes the view that the aforementioned administrative pecuniary penalty imposed on him is designed to place him under an obligation to provide information in the context of the execution, by the competent authority of the requested Member State of which he is a resident, of a request for information from another Member State for which there is no justification as regards the actual fiscal aim, there being therefore no legitimate aim in the present case, and which is intended to obtain information that has no foreseeable relevance to the tax case concerned?
In the event that it is established that the Charter is applicable to the present case, does the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial as laid down by Article 47 of the Charter require — without the possibility of restrictions being imposed under Article 52(1) of the Charter — that the competent national court must have unlimited jurisdiction and accordingly the power to review, at least as a result of an objection, the validity of an information order made by the competent authority of a Member State in the execution of a request for exchange of information submitted by the competent authority of another Member State, inter alia, on the basis of Directive 2011/16 in an action brought by the third party holder of the information, to whom that information order is addressed, such action being directed against a decision imposing an administrative pecuniary penalty for that person’s alleged failure to fulfil his obligation to cooperate in the context of the execution of that request?
In the event that it is established that the Charter is applicable to the present case, are Articles 1(1) and 5 of Directive 2011/16, in the light, on the one hand, of the parallels with the standard of foreseeable relevance arising out of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital and, on the other, of the principle of sincere cooperation laid down in Article 4 TEU, together forming the objective of Directive 2011/16, to be interpreted as meaning that the foreseeable relevance, in relation to the tax case referred to and to the stated fiscal purpose, of the information sought by one Member State from another Member State constitutes a condition which the request for information must satisfy in order to trigger an obligation on the part of the competent authority of the requested Member State to act on that request, and in order to justify an information order issued to a third party by that authority?
In the event that it is established that the Charter is applicable to the present case, are the provisions of Article 1(1) in conjunction with Article 5 of Directive 2011/16, and Article 47 of the Charter to be interpreted as precluding a legal provision of a Member State that generally limits the examination by its competent national authority, acting as the authority of the requested State, of the validity of a request for information to a review as to whether the request is in order, and as requiring a national court seised of court proceedings such as those described in the third question above to verify, in the context of those court proceedings, that the condition of foreseeable relevance of the information requested has been satisfied in all its aspects regarding the links to the particular tax case in question, the stated fiscal purpose and compliance with Article 17 of Directive 2011/16?
In the event that it is established that the Charter is applicable to the present case, does the second paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter preclude a legal provision of a Member State that precludes a request for information made by the competent authority of another Member State from being submitted to the competent national court of the requested State in court proceedings before it such as those described in the third question above; and does it require that document to be produced to the competent national court and access to it to be granted to the third party holding the information, or, indeed, that document to be produced to the national court without access to it being granted to the third party holding the information, owing to the confidential nature of that document, provided that any difficulties caused to the third party by a limitation on his rights are sufficiently counterbalanced by the procedures followed by the competent national court?
____________1 Council Directive 2011/16/EU of 15 February 2011 on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation and repealing Directive 77/799/EEC (OJ 2011 L 64, p. 1).