Hungary Gets Boost in EU Court Spat Over Tobacco Tax Suspension

(Bloomberg) --

Hungary should win its European Union court challenge against an EU decision to stall the government’s progressive taxes on retailers and tobacco companies, an adviser to the bloc’s top court said.

The 2015 European Commission decision ordering the suspension was “null,” Advocate General Juliane Kokott of the EU Court of Justice said in a non-binding opinion on Thursday. She also said a lower EU court ruling dismissing Hungary’s first appeal should be overturned.

The Luxembourg-based court’s rulings usually follow a few months after an opinion.

Hungary lost a first challenge at the EU’s lower court in 2018, and appealed. The European Commission in 2015 opened a probe into the measure and temporarily barred Hungary from collecting special taxes from retailers and tobacco companies on suspicion the “steeply” progressive levies are violating the bloc’s rules.

The case is: C-456/18 P, Hungary v. Commission.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman

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