Vimal Tilakapala and Anne Powell examine the recent decision in UK v Council of the European Union, in which the CJEU decided that the UK’s legal claim in relation to the EU financial transaction tax was admissible, but premature.
There was considerable debate about whether the UK should join in the EU initiative to introduce an FTT. When the UK along with certain other member states decided it would not join the FTT a subgroup of 11 member states decided to go ahead anyway. This gave rise to different concerns for the UK and other non-participating member states. The UK’s legal challenge related to these concerns. The UK’s chief concern was essentially that UK financial institutions would be forced to participate in this FTT at some cost to the UK.
