Decision of the Court of Cassation, I Criminal Section, No. 19915 of 17 December 2013, filed on 14 May 2014

This judgment was issued by the Court of Cassation while a proceeding for the same facts was pending before the European Court of Human Rights (Grande Stevens and others v. Italy). The question under examination by the two Courts was the same, i.e. whether or not the Italian legislation on market abuse, which allows to prosecute and sanction a same conduct as an administrative offense and as a criminal offense (Articles 187 ter and 185 of legislative decree No. 58 of 1998) infringes the ne bis in idem principle, guaranteed by the Protocol No. 7 to the ECHR and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Because of the extinction of the criminal offense due to statutory limitations, the Court of Cassation had not the opportunity, in reality, to decide on the question (affirmative answer to the question was given, later, by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment of 4 March 2014).