Court of Justice 26-11-1985 ECLI:EU:C:1985:468

Facts

By judgment of 13 March 1985 the defendant and the interveners were ordered to pay the costs in Case 318/82 jointly and severally.

By application lodged at the Court Registry on 9 August 1985 the applicant requested the Court to rule on the amount of recoverable costs.

It asks that the recoverable costs be set at HFL..., which it breaks down as follows:

In addition, the applicant seeks an order that the Commission should pay the costs of the present proceedings for taxation of costs, to the amount of HFL

The Commission contends that the amount of recoverable costs should be fixed at only HFL..., together with the Netherlands value-added tax payable on that amount. It breaks the figure down as follows :

In addition, the Commission contends that the Court should order the applicant to pay the costs of the present proceedings.

It is clear from the submissions and explanations put forward by the parties that they are essentially in agreement with regard to the amount of the advance payments and other expenses which are to be regarded as recoverable costs but that they disagree with regard to the fees of the applicant's lawyers.

In that connection, the applicant contends in particular that in view of the nature and significance of the action it is justified for the fees of more than one lawyer to be regarded as recoverable costs.

On the other hand, the Commission maintains that, according to the wording of Article 73 of the Rules of Procedure, the fees of only one agent, adviser or lawyer qualify as expenses necessarily incurred by the parties for the purpose of the proceedings.

Decision

1 According to Article 73 (b) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice ‘expenses necessarily incurred by the parties for the purpose of the proceedings, in particular the travel and subsistence expenses and the remuneration of agents, advisers, or lawyers’ are to be regarded as recoverable costs.

2 As the Court has held on numerous occasions, it is not empowered to tax the fees payable by the parties to their own lawyers but it may determine the amount of those fees which may be recovered from the party ordered to pay the costs. It follows that the Court is not obliged to take account of any national scales of lawyers' fees or any agreement in relation to fees concluded between the party concerned and his agents or advisers.

3 Since Community law does not contain any provisions laying down a scale of fees, the Court must consider all the facts of the case, taking into account the purpose and nature of the proceedings, their significance from the point of view of Community law, as well as the difficulties presented by the case, the amount of work generated by the dispute for the agents and advisers involved and the financial interest which the parties had in the proceedings.

4 In the light of those considerations, in the present case the recoverable costs in respect of the fees of the applicant's lawyers must be fixed at HFL... and those in respect of advance payments and other expenses at HFL..., making a total of HFL..., to which must be added the amount of any value-added tax payable on that sum.

5 Since the Court, when determining the recoverable costs, took account of all the circumstances of the case until the time of such determination, it is not necessary for it to rule separately on the costs incurred by the parties in connection with these supplementary proceedings.