Opinion in Case C-50/21 Prestige and Limousine

Thursday 15th December 2022

Opinion in Case C-50/21 Prestige and Limousine

(Competition Law)

Prestige and Limousine S.L. (P&L) is a holder of licences to operate private hire vehicles (PHV) within the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB). It challenges before the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña (High Court of Justice, Catalonia, Spain) and seeks to have annulled the regulation on vehicle transport companies RVTC, which aims to regulate PHV services in the whole Barcelona Metropolitan Area and which makes use of the possibility offered by Article 48(3) of the  Land Transport Planning Law (LOTT) to limit the number of licences for PHV services to 1 for every 30 licences granted for taxi services.

There are several such cases pending before the referring court: fourteen of the companies that were already providing PHV services in the area, including P&L and companies linked to international platforms, consider that, given the limitations and restrictions imposed on them by the RVTC, the sole purpose of its adoption was to hinder their activity, and only to protect the interests of the taxi industry. P&L and those other companies therefore asked the referring court to declare the RVTC null and void.

The Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña (High Court of Justice, Catalonia) has the same doubts as to the compatibility with those provisions of EU law of the ‘dual licence’ regime to which PHVs have been subject in the metropolitan territory of Barcelona.

The questions for a preliminary ruling are referred to the Court by the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña (High Court of Justice, Catalonia).

Background Documents C-50/21