On 20 May 2008, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave its decision in the case of Staatssecretaris van Financiën v Orange European Smallcap Fund NV (Case C-194/06). The Netherlands Supreme Court (Hoge Raad der Nederlanden) had requested a preliminary ruling from the ECJ on 14 April 2006.
The ECJ held that Arts. 56 and 58 of the EC Treaty do not preclude legislation of a Member State, such as the legislation at issue in the main proceedings, which grants a conc…