Forty Years of Precedent, One Stroke of the Pen? The Radical Implications of Advocate General Kokott’s Opinion in Nova Ibermoldes (Case C-837/24)

Advocate General Kokott recently delivered her Opinion in Nova Ibermoldes (Case C-837/24), a case concerning a Portuguese indirect tax levied in the context of a corporate reorganization involving immovable property. The Opinion raises questions of considerable importance under the EU Capital Duties Directive (2008/7/EC) and its predecessors. This article examines the Opinion’s interpretive methodology, its treatment of the Directive’s regulatory architecture, its consistency with established CJEU case law, the introduction of additional interpretive criteria, the characterization of the article 6(1)(b) exception and the role attributed to national case law. If followed by the Court, the Opinion could mark a significant reorientation of the CJEU’s long-standing approach to the Capital Duties Directives.