Case C-186/12

Impacto Azul Lda

v

BPSA 9 — Promoção e Desenvolvimento de Investimentos Imobiliários SA and Others

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal Judicial de Braga)

‛Freedom of establishment — Restrictions — Joint and several liability of parent companies vis-à-vis the creditors of their subsidiaries — Exclusion of parent companies having their seat in another Member State — No restriction’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber), 20 June 2013

1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Request for interpretation of provisions of Union law manifestly inapplicable in the main proceedings — Dispute relating to a purely internal situation

   (Arts 49 TFEU and 267 TFEU)

2. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Clearly irrelevant questions and hypothetical questions put in a context not permitting a useful answer — Questions not related to the purpose of the main proceedings

   (Art. 267 TFEU)

3. Freedom of establishment — Joint and several liability of parent companies vis-à-vis the creditors of their subsidiaries — National legislation precluding the application of the principle of joint and several liability to parent companies having their seat in another Member State — Lawfulness

   (Art. 49 TFEU)

1.  See the text of the decision.

   (see paras 17-19)

2.  See the text of the decision.

   (see paras 26, 27)

3.  Article 49 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which excludes the application of the principle of the joint and several liability of parent companies vis-à-vis the creditors of their subsidiaries to parent companies having their seat in the territory of another Member State.

   (see para. 39, operative part)