A Dutch Court applies for an ECJ preliminary ruling on the application of Art. 15.3 Reg. n° 1/2003 by the EC Commission within the framework of a tax case raising only indirectly EC competition provisions (X B.V. Belanghebbende/Inspecteur Belastingdienst)

In November 2002, the European Commission imposed a fine upon a Dutch company, (hereafter “X”), for breach of Article 81 EC. The payment of this fine was partly made by another company affiliated to X. Under Dutch tax law, a fine imposed upon a company by a Community institution may not be deducted from the taxable benefits of that company. A dispute arose between X and the tax administration on whether the amount of the fine which was paid by the affiliated company should be considered as not being deductible from the taxable benefits of that affiliated company. The Rechtbank Amsterdam (the Court of First Instance of Amsterdam), to which the case was first referred to, considered that the