Joined Cases C‑412/17 and C‑474/17

Bundesrepublik Deutschland

v

Touring Tours und Travel GmbH
and
Sociedad de Transportes SA

(Requests for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesverwaltungsgericht)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Area of freedom, security and justice — Regulation (EU) No 562/2006 — Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) — Articles 20 and 21 — Abolition of internal border controls in the Schengen area — Checks within the territory of a Member State — Measures having an effect equivalent to border checks — Rules of a Member State requiring a coach travel operator on routes crossing the internal borders of the Schengen area to check passengers’ passports and residence permits — Penalty — Threat to impose a recurring fine)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber), 13 December 2018

1.        Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Reference to the Court — Jurisdiction of the national courts — Determination and formulation of the questions referred for a preliminary ruling

(Art. 267 TFEU)

2.        Border controls, asylum and immigration — Community code on movement across borders — Abolition of internal border controls — Checks within the territory — Scope of Article 21(a) of Regulation No 562/2006 — Controls carried out by coach travel operators — Controls required by the legislation of a Member State subject to the imposition of a recurring fine — Included

(Art. 67(2) TFEU; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 562/2006, Art. 21)

3.        Border controls, asylum and immigration — Community code on movement across borders — Abolition of internal border controls — Checks within the territory — Rules of a Member State requiring a coach travel operator on routes crossing the internal borders of the Schengen area to check passengers’ passports and residence permits — Possibility for the police authorities to make an order prohibiting transport, together with a threat to impose a recurring fine for failure to comply with the obligation to carry out checks — Not permissible

(Art. 67(2) TFEU; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 562/2006, Art. 21)

1.      See the text of the decision.

(see paras 39-42)

2.      See the text of the decision.

(see paras 47-50)

3.      Article 67(2) TFEU and Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code), as amended by Regulation (EU) No 610/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013, must be interpreted to the effect that they preclude legislation of a Member State, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which requires every coach transport undertaking providing a regular cross-border service within the Schengen area to the territory of that Member State to check the passports and residence permits of passengers before they cross an internal border in order to prevent the transport of third-country nationals not in possession of those travel documents to the national territory, and which allows, for the purposes of complying with that obligation to carry out checks, the police authorities to issue orders prohibiting such transport, accompanied by a threat of a recurring fine, against transport undertakings which have been found to have conveyed to that territory third-country nationals who were not in possession of the requisite travel documents. The fact that, in the present case, the checks at issue in the main proceedings are characterised by the particularly close connection which they have with the crossing of an internal border, inasmuch as that is specifically the event which triggers those checks, is particularly indicative of an ‘effect equivalent to border checks’ for the purposes of Article 21(a) of Regulation No 562/2006.

(see paras 68, 73, operative part)