10.2.2020

Official Journal of the European Union

C 45/80

(Case T-803/19)

(2020/C 45/66)

Language of the case: German

Parties

Applicants: etc-gaming GmbH (Vienna, Austria) and Casino-Equipment Vermietungs GmbH (Vienna) (represented by: A. Schuster, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicants claim that the Court should:

—order the European Union, represented by the European Commission, to pay compensation for the losses suffered in the amount of EUR 110 836 927,73 which it unlawfully and through its own fault caused to the applicants’ assets by failing to provide, as required, a legal remedy within the meaning of Articles 6(1) and 13 of the ECHR and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’);

—alternatively, order the European Union, represented by the European Commission, on the merits of the case, to pay compensation for the losses suffered, and/or which will arise in the future, which it unlawfully and through its own fault caused to the applicants’ assets by failing to provide, as required, a legal remedy within the meaning of Articles 6(1) and 13 of the ECHR and Article 47 of the Charter;

—order the European Union, represented by the European Commission, to pay the costs of the present proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicants rely on the following plea in law:

The failure of the European Union to give effect to the requirements under the ECHR and the Charter to provide an effective legal remedy unlawfully and improperly caused the applicants to suffer a loss of at least EUR 110 836 927,73. This loss consists of the fact that the applicants, in the absence of a legal remedy which would have made possible a review of the failure by the national courts, which were under a corresponding duty to do so, to request a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice, were legally not in a position to ensure that effect would be given to EU law and thereby to ensure the inapplicability, as a result of the primacy of EU law, of the national tax provisions of the Law on games of chance resulting in obligations to pay tax corresponding to several times the amount of the turnover achieved during the same period.