Order of the Court of Cassation, II Civil Section, No. 23232 of 27 May 2016

Through this order, the Court of Cassation has made reference to the EU Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the question of whether those Italian law provisions that provide for criminal and administrative sanctions to be applied in case of market abuse (and, most in particular, insider trading) are inconsistent with the “ne bis in idem” principle.  The principle, enshrined in Article 50 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, should be read in light of the ECHR Court jurisprudence concerning Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 to the ECHR, and especially the Court’s decision of 2014 on the case Grande Stevens v. Italy, which the Italian judge has an obligation to comply with.