Order of the Court of Cassation, Civil Fiscal Section, No. 20675 of 20 September 2016

The Court of Cassation referred to the EUCourt of Justice a preliminary question concerning the application of two sanctions – a criminal one and an administrative one –  in accordance with Italian legislation concerning the offense of market abuses. The topic was examined also by the Italian Constitutional Court (decision No. 102 of 2016), after that the ECHR Court had ruled that so-called ‘double sanctions’ provided for by the Italian legislation are in breach of the ‘ne bis in idem’ principle under the ECHR (Grande Stevens v. Italy, 2014). The question referred to the EU Court of Justice through order No. 20675 of the Court of Cassation also involved Article 50 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, its relationship with the ‘ne bis in idem’ under the ECHR, and its possible direct application in the Italian domestic legal order.