Court of Justice 12 September 2017, C-537/16 (Garlsson Real Estate SA and Others v Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (Consob).)

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In this Opinion delivered in Case C-537/16 (Garlsson Real Estate and Others v. Consob), Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona opines that Article 50 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union precludes the imposition of administrative sanctions of a substantively criminal nature—assessed under the Engel criteria—on a person already finally convicted in criminal proceedings for the same acts of market manipulation, where national law provides no procedural mechanism to prevent such duplication of proceedings (the so-called dual-track system, or 'doppio binario sanzionatorio'). The AG further opines that the requirement under Directive 2003/6/EC for effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions does not constitute a legitimate limitation on the ne bis in idem right under Article 52(1) of the Charter, as a single-track system can equally satisfy that requirement without duplicating punishment. The AG concludes that Article 50 of the Charter is directly applicable before national courts, which must give it full effect and, if necessary, disapply conflicting provisions of national law of their own motion.AI