Action brought on 30 July 2024 – Italian Republic v Republic of Austria

(Case C-524/24)

(C/2024/5409)

Language of the case: German

Parties

Applicant: Italian Republic (represented by: G. Palmieri, acting as Agent, and by G. Caselli, S. Fiorentino and G. Galluzzo, Avvocati dello Stato)

Defendant: Republic of Austria

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Austrian A 12 and A 13 motorways form part of the so-called ‘Brenner axis’, a section of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor of the trans-European transport network.

The action brought by the Italian Republic is directed against four measures introduced in the Austrian Province of Tyrol, all of which are intended to limit the traffic of heavy duty vehicles used for the carriage of goods on the A 12 and A 13 motorways: a night traffic ban, a sectoral traffic prohibition, a winter traffic ban and the restriction of traffic by means of ‘dosing’. A separate plea is devoted to each of those four measures, alleging, respectively, an infringement of the free movement of goods (Articles 34 and 35 TFEU). (4)

Overall, the action seeks to establish that the Republic of Austria, despite two judgments of the Court of Justice in Cases C-320/03 and C-28/09, (5) maintained measures that have the effect of unlawfully restricting the free movement of goods and introduced others that are, in turn, measures having equivalent effect to prohibited quantitative restrictions on imports and exports and that aggravate the overall infringement of the fundamental freedom concerned.

(1)  Regulation of the First Minister of Tyrol of 27 October 2010 adopting a night traffic ban for heavy goods vehicles on the A12 motorway in the Inn valley (night traffic ban for heavy goods vehicles, LGBl. No 64/2010, as amended by LGBl. No 141/2021).

(2)  Regulation of the First Minister of Tyrol of 18 May 2016 prohibiting the long-distance carriage of certain goods on a section of the A 12 motorway in the Inn valley (sectoral traffic prohibition, LGBl. No 44/2016, as amended by LGBl. No 48/2023).

(3)  Regulation of the Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology prohibiting the traffic of lorries on the A 12 motorway in the Inn valley and on the A 13 Brenner motorway on certain Saturdays during the winter of 2023 (2023 winter traffic ban schedule, BGBl. II No 3/2023).

(4)  The fourth plea is based only on Article 34 TFEU.

(5)  Judgments of 15 November 2005, Commission v Austria, C-320/03, EU:C:2005:684, and of 21 December 2011, Commission v Austria, C-28/09, EU:C:2011:854.