Decision of the Court of Cassation, III Criminal Section, No. 19334 of 11 February 2015

The Court of Cassation rejected the appeal against a decision imposing a criminal penalty after an administrative penalty had been imposed on the same person for the same act. In the view of the defendant, this was contrary to the principle ne bis in idem. The Court of Cassation, however, is not a judge on the merits, and could not ascertain the facts of the case as it would have been necessary in order to assess the alleged violation. Notwithstanding this, the Court observed that the fact of applying a double penalty – administrative and criminal – for certain offenses, as is provided in Italian legislation, is probably in contrast with the pertinent jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (Grande Stevens v. Italy, and other cases). On other hand, it did not seemed to the Court of Cassation that the matter is, also, within the competence of the EU Court of Justice, to which a preliminary ruling on the issue was however asked by the Court in Torino, through an order of 27 October 2014.