The Regional Administrative Court Again Cancels Google's Administrative Fees
In the second week of June, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR) revoked the provisions requiring Google Ireland to pay an annual contribution for its online intermediation and search engine activities.
The underlying issue is simple: Italian law (and AGCOM) required payment even by companies not established in Italy.
Google challenged this obligation, arguing that it violates European Union law.
The Country of Origin Principle
The European e-Commerce Directive establishes that a digital service provider is subject only to the law of the country in which it is established. In other words, a company based in Ireland that offers online services in Italy cannot be burdened by additional obligations imposed by the Italian state, because those obligations fall to the Irish state.
The European Court of Justice had already clarified this point in a ruling specifically concerning Google. It held that a general national rule imposing on a foreign provider obligations to register, submit financial information, and pay financial contributions violates the E-Commerce Directive. No exceptions.
What the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR) did
The court applied that principle to the contribution due for the year in question. It disapplied the provision of the Italian budget law in the part that extended the obligation to entities not established in Italy. It then annulled the AGCOM resolutions that established the amount and payment methods.
AGCOM had attempted to argue that the contribution was a tax contribution, thus falling outside the scope of the E-Commerce Directive. The Council of State had already rejected this argument: if the Court of Justice assessed the contribution's compatibility with the Directive, it therefore considered it non-tax in nature.
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The Regional Administrative Court Again Cancels Google's Administrative Fees
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