To Arbitrate or Not to Arbitrate? The Request for a Preliminary Ruling in Maxima LT (Case C-497/25)

In this article, the author discusses the request for a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Maxima LT (Case C-497/25), which concerns the question of how the term “double taxation”, included in the EU Dispute Resolution Directive (2017/1852), should be interpreted and whether primary EU law imposes any limits on Member States wanting to invoke article 16(7) of that Directive to deny access to an advisory commission. The EU Dispute Resolution Directive was adopted over eight years ago, with several hundred cases having been handled under the Directive as of the end of 2023. This, however, is the first request for a preliminary ruling in relation to the Directive.