The Cross-border Mobility of Companies within the European Community after the Cartesio Ruling of the ECJ

摘要

On December 16, 2008, the ECJ delivered its ruling in the Cartesio case, concerning a limited partnership incorporated in Hungary which intended to transfer its seat to Italy while maintaining its legal status under Hungarian law. In this ruling the ECJ upheld - contrary to the recommendation of the Advocate General (A.G.) - a position expressed 20 years earlier in the Daily Mail case. Notably, in Daily Mail the ECJ had stated that, at the current state of EC law, art.48 of the Treaty could not be interpreted as conferring on companies incorporated in a Member State the right to move their head office or registered office to another Member State (so called right of primary establishment) while retaining the legal status conferred by the law of the state of incorporation.