Litigation Costs and Legal Aid

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LITIGATION COSTS AND LEGAL AID

1. Litigation Costs

According to Article 102 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, it is for the referring court to decide on the allocation of costs in connection with a reference for a preliminary ruling.

In Clean Car Autoservice I, in accordance with what is now Article 102 of the Rules of Procedure, the Court of Justice ruled that it was for the referring Austrian court to decide on the apportionment of the litigation costs.¹ On that basis, the Austrian court awarded Clean Car Autoservice an amount of costs which was calculated on the basis of a fixed scale that did not take account of the special costs connected with the reference for a preliminary ruling. Clean Car Autoservice argued that this scale was contrary to EU law. It therefore brought a new action before another Austrian court concerning the amount of the costs awarded. In Clean Car Autoservice II