Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Curtea de Apel Timișoara (Romania) lodged on 8 December 2010 — Sergiu Alexandru Micșa v Administrația Finanțelor Publice Lugoj, Direcția Generală a Finanțelor Publice Timiș, Administrația Fondului pentru Mediu
(Case C-573/10)
2011/C 46/12
Language of the case: Romanian

Referring court
Curtea de Apel Timișoara

Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: Sergiu Alexandru Micșa
Defendants: Administrația Finanțelor Publice Lugoj, Direcția Generală a Finanțelor Publice Timiș, Administrația Fondului pentru Mediu

Questions referred
1.
Must Article 110 TFEU be interpreted as meaning that it precludes exemption from payment of pollution tax on the first registration in the territory of a Member State of vehicles with specific, precisely designated, technical characteristics where other vehicles are subject to payment of the tax under national provisions.
2.
If Article 110 TFEU precludes the exemption referred to in the first question only in certain circumstances, do such circumstances include a situation in which all, the majority or a significant number of motor vehicles produced on national territory have technical characteristics which entail the exemption (bearing in mind that such characteristics are also found in motor vehicles produced in other Member States of the EU and that the exemption applies to those, too).
3.
If the second question is answered in the affirmative, what are the characteristics of a product which make it similar, within the meaning of Article 110 TFEU, to a motor vehicle which has all the following characteristics:
(a)
it is new (or has not previously been sold for a purpose other than resale or supply and therefore has never been registered) or it is second-hand and has been registered in a Member State of the European Union during the period from 15 December 2008 to 31 December 2009 inclusive;
(b)
it was designed and built for the transport of passengers and has, in addition to the driver's seat, at most eight seats (vehicles in category M1, under the Romanian legislation) or was designed and built for the transport of goods with a maximum weight of 3.5 tons (vehicles in category NI, under the Romanian legislation);
(c)
it falls within pollution class Euro 4;
(d)
it has a cylinder capacity of less than 2 000 cc (a characteristic to be taken into account only in the case of vehicles in category MI).

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