Further to our earlier post, regarding an Advocate-General’s opinion on a case arising from a fine and confiscation order imposed by Romania’s ANAF enforcement agency, the CJEU has now issued its judgment.
The case concerned a challenge to the confiscation order of €2,984,961.40 being 100% of the gross revenue obtained by the company Neves 77 Solutions SRL in breach of sanctions.
Neves argued that confiscation of the gross revenue was disproportionate, particularly in light of the right to property enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights. The CJEU disagrees at [93]:
“the confiscation of all the proceeds of the prohibited brokering transaction thus appears necessary in order to dissuade effectively and efficiently economic operators from infringing the prohibition“.
This provides important clarification on whether confiscation orders should target the gross revenue or just the net revenue obtained from the breaches of sanctions.
The CJEU also dealt with the question of whether the prohibition on “brokering services” contained in Regulation 833/2014 requires the goods in question to, at some stage, have entered the territory of the EU. The CJEU has ruled that there is no such requirement.