The ECJ was asked to provide a preliminary ruling, under Article 234 EC, concerning the taxation of waste from a contaminated land site in Italy at a municipal waste disposal site in Austria.

In delivering their judgement the ECJ stated that “practical difficulties cannot justify the application of internal taxation which discriminates against products from other Members States”

The ECJ declared that the first paragraph of Article 90 EC precludes a national tax provision which exempts from the levy imposed on the long-term depositing of waste at waste disposal sites in the Member State concerned deposits of waste derived from the rehabilitation or safeguarding of disused hazardous sites or suspected contaminated sites located in that Member State alone, but excludes exemption of deposits of waste derived from the rehabilitation or safeguarding of sites located in other Member States.

Judgement: C-221/06 may be accessed via the website of the ECJ at the following link.

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