Once again, on God’s tax whip

Just a few weeks ago, the Court of Justice of the European Union had to make a decision on the accumulation of sanctions in the context of a Romanian case, this time related to a Bulgarian one.

In Case C-97/21, during a trial purchase, the inspector did not receive a receipt for a purchased box of cigarettes. In addition to the default penalty (which was already several hundred times the price of the cigarettes), the tobacco shop was also closed for 14 days. This shop was the only business of the individual entrepreneur.

According to the European Court of Justice, the combined application of the administrative fine and the closure of the shop does not in itself conflict with EU law. However, in this particular case, both sanctions penalized the same fault in a deterrent manner. Therefore, Bulgaria was also condemned because, according to the procedural rules in place, the same court does not have jurisdiction for the judicial review of the administrative fine and the closure of the shop, and there is no possibility of consolidating the cases.