ALPINA RIVER CRUISES GMBH AND ANOTHER V MINISTERO DELLE INFRASTRUTTURE E DEI TRASPORTI - CAPITANERIA DI PORTO DI CHIOGGIA

[2013] Case C-17/13, Court of Justice of the European Union, 27 March 2014

Maritime transport - Concept of cabotage - Passenger traffic - Cruise traffic - Passengers departing from and returning to the same port - Council Regulation (EEC) No 3577/92 of 7 December 1992 applying the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport within member states (maritime cabotage)

This was a request for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato of Italy. The background to the dispute was that an application by the claimant Swiss and German cruise companies had been rejected by the Italian authorities. The application concerned permission for Bellissima, a Swiss-registered vessel used for river cruises from Venice and Chioggia up the river Po and back to Venice, to pass through the Italian territorial sea as part of the cruise. The Italian authorities rejected the application because the Italian Code of Navigation article 224, with reference to Regulation 3577/92/EEC, restricted maritime cabotage to ships flying the flag of a member state. Following litigation before the administrative tribunals, the highest instance Consiglio di Stato had referred a question to the Court of Justice of the European Union, namely whether Regulation 3577/92/EEC on maritime cabotage was applicable to cruises between ports in a member state without boarding or debarkation of passengers at those ports, because the passengers always left the vessel in the same port where they boarded in the member state. The Advocate General proposed a ruling that a transport service such as that in the present case constituted maritime transport within a member state within the meaning of article 2(1) of Regulation 3577/92/EEC.