The Spanish supreme court (El Tribunal Supremo) has dismissed the measures requested by Telefónica, Vodafone and ONO to stop the annual tax of 0.9% of their gross operating revenue to finance public broadcaster RTVE.
The Ministry of the Presidency noted that the verdict reaffirms its full confidence in the legality of the law on financing RTVE. Also, the tax “does not jeopardise the financial viability of the operators” as they may defer or split payments.
Earlier, the European Commission came out against the Spanish telco tax on the grounds that such fees were not compatible with European legislation and that “appear to unduly affect telecom operators, and to limit their investments and penalised in final customers.”
It seems likely that the EC will now start proceedings against Spain now the Spanish government appears to be strengthened in its belief the tax is lawful following the decision of the supreme court.
