Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Freedom of movement for persons — Workers — Restrictions — Prohibition on workers domiciled in national territory using rental vehicles leased from an undertaking established in another Member State and made available by the employer who is also established in the other Member State — Not permissible — (Art. 39 EC)

Summary

Article 39 EC precludes national rules of a Member State which provide that motor vehicles are permitted to be driven on its territory only if they have first been entered in the register of motor vehicles in the name of their owner, which if the applicant is a legal person, must have its registered office and a value added tax number in that Member State, and therefore prohibit a worker who is domiciled in that Member State from using on its territory a vehicle registered in another neighbouring Member State, belonging to a leasing company established in that second Member State, and made available to the worker by his employer who is also established in the second Member State.

In such a case the worker cannot register the vehicle in the first Member State because he is not the owner; and the owner, the leasing company, cannot register it either because it is not established in that Member State and does not have a VAT number there as is required for registration of the vehicle. It follows that it is impossible for a worker domiciled in that Member State, who uses the vehicle for work and to go home at the weekend, to benefit from the provision of a vehicle belonging to a person established in another Member State. In the same way, such rules could discourage an employer based in one Member State from engaging a worker residing in another Member State because of the higher costs and administrative difficulties involved.

Such a measure, which has the effect of preventing a worker from benefiting from certain advantages, in particular, the provision of a vehicle, may therefore deter him from leaving his country of origin in order to exercise his right to free movement.

see paras 18-21, 26 operative part